A crowd of 13,000 saluted the popular Kidd with an emotional welcome before Keegan's Premiership new-boys ran out 3-1 winners.
Preston boss Brown was quick to acknowledge the contribution that Kidd made to the Deepdale club before he was forced to retire with a neck injury last November.
Brown said: "I think the size of the crowd was a great measure of respect for Ryan Kidd who played here for ten years.
"The players respect him greatly and so do the fans and obviously great thanks go to Manchester City for providing the opposition and for bringing such support with them."
Keegan echoed Brown's sentiments, while also confirming the respect the two clubs have for each other.
The Manchester City manager said: "Respect for Ryan Kidd. He's been so unlucky to finish the way he has but I always think these games the supporters tell you how they feel and he's got 13,000 here.
"I guess 13's lucky tonight, it's a good attendance and he's the sort of player who deserves that.
"We came here for a lot of reasons. One was we know Preston play football, we know they've got a superb surface and we knew with Craig being here it would be a proper game because he's very professional.
"We've met before and the games were good because I think Craig believes in the same things and it was a great game."