Villa youngster Archer was originally on Lowe’s radar when he was in charge of League One club Plymouth Argyle, but when he took the Preston job he knew he wanted the striker at Deepdale.
Lowe is good friends with Villa boss Gerrard and called him as soon as he went to Preston to try to line up a loan swoop for Archer.
The 43-year-old revealed Gerrard’s words upon placing the phone call and admits the Aston Villa boss did him a favour by loaning Archer to Preston.
“It was if one goes out you can get one in. We knew that one would definitely go out to play some football; I said that to him from day one”, Lowe told LFC TV.
“The main objective was to get a striker in.
“The minute Stevie went to Aston Villa the minute I was trying to get Cameron Archer; that was for Plymouth.
“When I took the Preston North End job I was right on the phone and he said ‘give us a chance, I’ve only just got in’.
“I did manage to get him off him to be fair and he’s done us a favour.”
Archer linked up with Preston on 24th January on a loan deal running through to the end of the season.
The 20-year-old wasted little time in making an impact as he netted on his North End debut, scoring in a 2-0 win away at West Brom in the Championship.
