[Lord Snooty]

Preston North End v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Wednesday February 9th - 19:45 ko
at Deepdale

Huddersfield Town travel to Preston to Deepdale on Wednesday night for the resumption of our unexpected promotion push.

While Town were plotting a course for Wembley on Saturday in the FA Cup, the Lillywhites were in league action at Hull City. And they won 1-0 with a goal from Villa loanee Cameron Archer.

That win put them just 4 points behind 6th placed West Brom and a win in this one would put them just 4 points behind us. A win for the mighty Terriers though would really put us in that dreamland that none of us were even dreaming about at the start of the season. The Baggies are away at Sheffield United on Wednesday night and QPR and Middlesbrough play each other at Loftus Road. Forest travel to 2nd placed Blackburn.

Don't put too much expectation on a Town win though. This is a ground where we never win. We haven't won there since 1969 when two goals from Frank Worthington and one from Jimmy Lawson gave us a 3-1 victory. That was under the management of Ian Greaves in the 2nd Division Championship winning season. Since then Bobby Collins, Mick Buxton, Eoin Hand, Ian Ross, Lou Macari, Simon Grayson, David Wagner, Danny Cowley and Carlos Corberán have all led Town teams to Deepdale and landed in deep shit, with none of them managing to get a Town victory. Can Carlos finally break that hoodoo?

If you're going, enjoy the match. If not. It's on Sky. AND IT'S LIVE!

Tickets:

Adults – £24
Over-65s – £16
Young Adults (19-24) – £15
Juniors (11-18) – £8
Under-11s – £2

A brief history of Preston North End: I did all this last season, so if you want to have a read, have a click on this https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=9726

The Invincibles

Head to Head



It's level pegging in the head to head with 36 wins each, with 23 draws.

Done all this before as well, so if you want to have a look, click here https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthrea...#pid196168

Since then though, we lost both matches last season. They beat us 2-1 at the JSS, with Fraizer Campbell scoring early on. Alan Browne then scored two in three minutes after the break to win it for them. And to make matters worse, Naby Sarr got himself sent off.

The away game was a disaster as well, going down 3-0. Brad Potts, Ched Evans and Scott Sinclair scoring.

Happier times this season when it was Town who won a pulsating match, live on Sky Sports. If I remember correctly, it was a cracking end to end game with chances falling every other minute, with goalkeepers making miraculous saves, until right at the end, the unfortunate Sepp van den Berg put the ball into his own net.

So what's going on down Tom Finney Way? Managed nowadays by Ryan Lowe, a legend in Bury.

He's 43 years old, born in Liverpool in 1978, he played for the Liverpool youth team and was bezzies with Steven Gerrard. He never made it through though and left to play non league football before finally making it into the Football League with Shrewsbury Town when he was 22.

He got relegated to the Conference with the Shrews but helped them straight back up again before transferring to Chester City. His CV reads like a Who's Who of the north west lower leagues, taking in places like Crewe, Stockport and Bury. Tranmere, Bury, Crewe again. Bury again and again, then back to Crewe. He did diversify slightly mid way through his career when he went and played a season with Sheffield Wednesday and then down to Milton Keynes.

He finally hung his boots up in 2018 at the age of 39 when Bury took him on as manager. Unfortunately they had managed to get themselves into all kinds of mess. They had been in administration and had no players and had been relegated to League Two.

He got himself a new team, got them in a top three spot, to the semis of the PaintPotPizza and won three Manager of the Month awards and then got poached by Plymouth Argyle, which is like a million miles from the area he was so used to operating in. He did alright down south, most notably beating Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup. This was after he won promotion from League Two and had got the Pilgrims to the top of League One during the pandemic and won another MOTM award. They had dropped slightly down to 4th place when all of a sudden, he resigned in December 2021.

Within seconds of his resignation, he was appointed manager of Preston North End in the North West of England. The south just didn't suit him.

Saturday's line up away at Hull:

12 Daniel Iversen - Danish keeper on his 2nd loan season from Leicester.
2 Sepp van den Berg - Dutch centre back on his 2nd loan season from Liverpool.
5 Patrick Bauer - German centre back, came from Charlton Athletic.
16 Andrew Hughes - Welsh defender, ex PishPosh.
44 Brad Potts - Dirty bastard once shat on a car.
8 Alan Browne - Irish international, club captain, scored twice against us last season.
4 Ben Whiteman - Midfielder signed from Donny last year.
13 Ali McCann - Norn Iron international, signed from St Johnstone in the summer.
3 Greg Cunningham - Irish defender in his 2nd spell at the club.
21 Cameron Archer - 20 year old striker on loan from Villa.
19 Emil Riis Jakobsen - Danish striker, top scorer with 16.

Subs:
6 Liam Lindsay - Defender, ex Partick, Barnsley and Stoke.
9 Ched Evans - 
11 Daniel Johnson - Jamaican midfielder in his 8th season there.
18 Ryan Ledson - Midfielder, last year's Player of the Season.
25 Connor Ripley - Reserve keeper, signed from Boro.
31 Scott Sinclair - Ex Chelsea, Swansea, Man City, Villa and Celtic winger.
32 Josh Earl - Defender, was on loan at Burton last season.

Emil Riis Jakobsen

Club connections:

Loads of them......... https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthrea...#pid196168




'ow to get theere an' wheere to sup: The post code for sat nav is PR1 6RU. Parking is mainly in the streets surrounding the ground. There is some parking available at the ground itself, but at a cost of £12.50 per car. Nearby across Sir Tom Finney Way (behind the Main Stand) is another car park which costs £7. Parking is available for £5 a car at Moorfields School. The car park is manned by volunteers from the school and all proceeds go into school funds.

Preston Railway Station is around a mile and a half from the ground and takes around twenty five minutes to walk.

Drinks? There's Finney's Cafe and Sports Bar right next to the Splash statue thingy. Ask themaclad if it's any good.

Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 1-0 Barnsley (FA Cup)
Town 2-0 Derby
Town 1-1 Stoke
Reading 3-4 Town
Town 1-1 Swansea
Burnley 1-2 Town (FA Cup)

Hull 0-1 PNE
Millwall 0-0 PNE
PNE 2-2 Bristol City
WBA 0-2 PNE
Swansea 1-0 PNE
PNE 2-2 Sheff Utd

Town are 5th in the Championship table with 48 points. Preston are 11th with 41.

Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Danny Ward (10)
Danel Sinani (5)
Duane Holmes (5)
Josh Koroma (4)
Matty Pearson (4)


Lillywhites:
Emil Riis Jakobsen (16)
Benjamin Whiteman (4)
Daniel Johnson (4)
Patrick Bauer (3)


February the 9th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1924: Newcastle United (a) Div 1, WON 1-0 (Clem Stephenson)
1929: Arsenal (h) Div 1, (h), lost 0-1
1935: Leeds United (h) Div 1, WON 3-1 (Charlie Luke 3)
1952: Wolverhampton Wanderers (a) Div 1, drew 0-0
1957: Stoke City (a) Div 2, lost 1-5 (Dave Hickson)
1980: Port Vale (a) Div 4, drew 1-1 (David Cowling)
1982: Preston North End (h) Div 3, lost 2-3 (Peter Fletcher 2)
1991: Bolton Wanderers (a) Div 3, drew 1-1 (Garry Haylock)
2002: Tranmere Rovers (h) Division Two (3rd tier), WON 2-1 (Craig Armstrong, Clyde Wijnhard)
2008: Swindon Town (h) League One (3rd tier), WON 1-0 (Phil Jevons)
2010: Brighton & Hove Albion (a), League One (3rd tier), drew 0-0
2013: Cardiff City (h) Championship, drew 0-0
2019: Arsenal (h) Premier League, lost 1-2 (Karlan Grant)

Played 13. WON 4. Drew 5. Lost 4.


Clem Stephenson, who scored the winner at Newcastle on this date in 1924, was at our great club from 1920 to 1942, both as player and manager. He was involved in all our five FA Cup Finals. In 1920, he played against us for Aston Villa. In 1922 and 1928, he played for us. And in 1930 and 1938, he was the manager.

Garry Haylock, who scored in 1991 at Bolton, was born in Bradford but spent most of his playing career in Ireland. This goal was one of four he scored for the Terriers. He then went on loan to Shelbourne and scored a hat trick in his second game, before signing on permanently.

Karlan Grant scored his first Town goal on this day in 2019 in only his second appearance. His first had been down at Chelsea as a sub and this one was also as a sub. He'd only been on ten minutes when he scored in the 3rd minute of added on time, although at first it was given as a Saed Kolasinac own goal.

Anagrams: will return for the Sheffield United match.

[themaclad]

Finney's has gone, it is now a health centre, we have a fanzone a tent which last Saturday was next to a Covid testing centre

[Lord Snooty]

Oh dear. I think that fans guide to football grounds is a bit out of date. Might have to find a new reference site.

[WakeyTerrier]

As you say, we never win at Preston. The best I've seen us manage was probably a 3-3 draw back in 1989 on the plastic pitch which was also my first visit to PNE

If we come away with 6 or more points from this, Sheff Utd and Fulham I'll jump onboard the Play Off bandwagon

[theo_luddite]

Well done Snoots, another mine of information

Anagrams in no particular order

Tom Finney
Deepdale
Ryan Lowe
Blackpool Road

What?

Oh bother, said Pooh.
(Though secretly he let forth with a stream of four letter words that Christopher Robin didn't know how to spell, so they were never added to the book).

[jjamez]

I went the other year and parked next to the school at I believe it may have been a working man's club. Think that too was a fiver, also had a couple of games of snooker before heading to the ground, I say a couple because we are both rubbish.

Quite enjoyed the butter pie I had there, in fact, if it wasnt on TV we might have gone over again, just for said pie. Obviously not the three points as we haven't won there since the 60's or something stupid like that.

The Preston game earlier this season was some bad that I'd completely forgot about it, could remember the game we threw away last year, where riis completly rinsed us and the Colin quaner game, but nowt else.

Don't know if Johnson has been injured, rested or fallen out of favour, but he's a player that I have rated for a while, seems to make things happen, but I've always seen him as a bit of a Holmes/sinani type of player, in that he enjoys going forward and will try and help in defence but it isn't he favourite aspect of the game.

[themaclad]

Johnson sub Saturday been on World Cup duty with Jamaica no she went of her own accord

[theo_luddite]

This thing with Zouma (and he deserves everything the RSCPA and the Police throw at him), but also like every idiot that was in a pub or 10 Downing Street during the lock down with a phone and/or camera in their hand and posted it to their mate or to soshial meedja .....

1. Why record it or photograph it in the first place (unless you have an agenda)?
In the case of 10 Downing Street, I think a few might have good reason to have an agenda, otherwise, you're a bunch of dickheads.
2. Why push it out to anybody else you know, just for a larf like, who can then post it anywhere on soshial meedja that they want to and you have no control over it? You're still a bunch of dickheads.
3. Why put it on soshial meedja yourself? Complete and utter dickheads.
4. Unless of course you are earning £50K or more a week and you are a complete and utter dickhead to begin with and you're earning £50K a week thanks to someone that has more than the two braincells to rub together than you have. You might want to talk to him/her before you post stupid photos/videos anywhere, but I won't hold my breath. Not many of you ever got A's in anything that wasn't called Sport at school.
6. Wish I was thick as two short planks and could've kicked a bag of wind around for a living, even at 63. I'd never drop-kick a dog or a cat down the hall though, even though more than a few cats have tried that with me, evil little barstewards that they are.

[Lord Snooty]

Glad to hear that the RSPCA have taken the cats away. And also glad to hear that the West Ham fans booed him as well last night.

Over now to see what David Moyes thinks about animal cruelty......

[theo_luddite]

"Here we go then...the last time Huddersfield Town won away to Preston North End was the day Sesame Street first aired in the United States, and the number one single in the UK charts was The Archies’ ‘Sugar, Sugar’."

I don't feel a day under 25, honest guv.