Brown backs Davies at Preston

The former Preston manager Craig Brown believes his successor, Billy Davies, is the right man to take the club forward.

Davies was announced as the new man at Deepdale yesterday following a successful six-game spell at the helm following Brown's dismissal last month. The former Motherwell manager has signed a one-year rolling contract and will take charge of his first game as the permanent manager against Plymouth Argyle tonight.

Brown has spoken to Davies on a daily basis since he took up the caretaker role at the end of August and is convinced his former first-team coach will do an excellent job.

"It as an absolutely outstanding choice and I think he will be terrific," Brown said. "He is a very close friend and a former colleague and I couldn't be more pleased for him."

Davies is likely to be shackled by the same financial restraints which hampered Brown's time at Preston, and the former Scotland manager revealed that the sale of Ricardo Fuller was one of the reasons behind his own departure. Fuller left for Portsmouth earlier in the season - a transfer which Brown said caused a disagreement between himself and chairman Derek Shaw.

"I fell out with the chairman because of the sale of Ricardo Fuller," he said. "He wouldn't let me play him in our game against Sheffield United because a deal was being negotiated with Portsmouth."