[theo_luddite]

V


Venue
Both Ends Stadium,
Sir Tom Finney Way,
Preston,
Lancashire,
PR1 6RU.

As usual I have shamelessly knicked and altered stuff as I feel fit from interweb sites such as those good chaps at Wicki (for the most part). As my usual stats partner statto.com seems to have taken a rest since the weekend, I've knobbled some guff from other sites instead and come over all Mirf like in places. I'm blaming it all on two weeks of Canadian beer. Only the good stuff mind - none of that witch pissy Molson or Labatts stuff passed my lips to get turned into Budweiser while I was there.

3rd placed Town head across the Pennines for a wet and windy Wednesday night fixture at 18th placed Preston Both Ends with Town looking to get back on the points trail after losing to The Wendies on the telly on Sunday.

Quarter Term Report.  
Town are enjoying one of our best starts to a season in the living memories of most who post (and some who read) on here, built on the back of the joint meanest defense in the division (9 goals against, matched only by Brighton and Ipswich). Had you offered me (and many Town fans I suspect) 3rd place, 25 points, 5 points clear of 7th place and only 9 goals conceded at the beginning of August then both your hands would have been well and truly snatched off.

With 14 goals scored so far we are far from being the leagues top scorers but also far from being the lowest scorers too. That being Derby with a miserable 7 goals return for the millions of £'s spent over the last couple of seasons or so. Norwich (24) and Newcastle (25) are top scorers and top of the league for that very reason, and probably should be giving the brass they can and have thrown at it. Others on or above 20 are Brizzle (5th, 20), Barnsalee (11th, 23), Forest (15th, 22).

Learning from your peers
Both Ends somewhat showed us the way forward last season, finishing with the joint 6th tightest defence in the division, conceding 45 goals (Town 70), a total only beaten by Boro, Burnalee, Brighton, Hull, Derby and matched by the Wendies. All the above finished in the Top 6. It is no coincidence. That Both Ends only finished 11th was due to the fact they only scored 45 goals (Town 59), drawing a League 2nd highest 17 (level with L666s and The Wendies) and ony beaten by QPR (18). They are somewhat struggling to  repeat last seasons form that kept them in mid-table for most of the season after being promoted the season before. That former Town manager Larry Grayson did that and finished higher than Town have managed at three attempts so far, with a few former Town players in his ranks to boot, might have wrankled with some, but I'll take what we have right now over what we had or might have had in the past thank you very much. Former town coach Steve Thompson has joined Larry at Both Ends after the way he shamelessly left Town for the mighty euro's on offer at L666s and promptly got shafted by Cellino.

Quarter Term Summary and Full Term proposals.
So now that Wagbo apparently has our defense sorted, it is getting to the time where we need to start scoring a few more.

Is it really? "1-0 to the Arsenal" never did them any harm now did it?

Some more Mirf type stuff in evidence
Most games (18) in this division have so far finished 1-1 and 104 of 144 games 71% have finished up with a scoreline somewhere between 0-0 and 2-2. Almost every club in this division has either learned how to defend (or forgotten how to score, make your own minds up). Rotherham (28) by a long way along with Bollackburn, Cardiff, Forest and Barnsalee are the only one's to have conceded 20 or more so far.



Some Peonies History
Known as either the Lillywhites or The Invincibles, Both Ends were the first Football League side to go unbeaten in a season. That they were founding members and that it was the first ever season of the Football League and that they went on to complete a League and Cup double beating Wolves 3-0 in the Final (1888-89) made it even more noteworthy. The Baggies couldn't stop them either in the semi. They won the league again the following season but have not won it since. (A somewhat familiar ring to some of that story).

In 1887, Preston beat Hyde 26–0 in the First Round of the FA Cup, still a record winning margin in English first-class football. Preston forward Jimmy Ross scored eight goals in the match, going on to score 19 goals in the competition that season, also still a record.

The last thing they did win of note was the FA Cup again in 1938, beating errrrrr Huddersfield Town 1-0.

The Both Ends Stadium
- or Deepdale.


The land on which the stadium stands was originally Emmerdale Deepdale Farm (sorry   ). It was leased on 21 January 1875 by the town's Both Ends sports club and originally used for cricket and rugby. It hosted its first association football match on 5 October 1878. The league record attendance for Preston North End at Deepdale is 42,684 v Arsenal in the First Division, 23 April 1938.

Rather than move out of a decrepit and out of date stadium, all four of the original stands have been replaced by new all seated structures named after famous Preston North End players. Now I like that because it maintains the club history and it's a decent but not overwhelming pub crawl from the railway station northwards to the ground. . A bit of a rush back after the game to get the train home on Wednesday nights tho'.   .

The old 'Pavilion' stand, was replaced by the 'Invincibles Pavilion', opened for the 2008–09 season. I wonder why they gave it that name?  

Renovation
The regeneration of Deepdale began in 1995 when the old West Stand was demolished to make way for the new £4.4m Sir Tom Finney Stand, which has a capacity of 8,100 and includes press areas and restaurants.
The next stand to be developed was the 6,000 seater Bill Shankly Kop in 1998.

The National Football museum ran underneath these stands with the entrance at the corner of the two. The museum has now been moved lock, stock and most of the barrels to Manchester, right next door to Victoria Station if you haven't been there or spotted it yet.

In 2001, the roughly 6,000-seater Alan Kelly Town End was next to be built replacing the popular Town End terrace.

The old Pavilion terrace was closed in 2006, however fans could still use the seated upper tier until it was eventually demolished in 2007.

In 2008, the new 5,000 seater Invincibles Pavilion opened to complete the regeneration of Deepdale, giving it a new capacity of 23,404.

The Invincibles Pavilion includes a row of executive boxes and a restaurant which overlooks the pitch as well as the Stadium Control Room, PA Box and Big Screen Control Room and an NHS walk-in centre has also been built into the stand. In 2008, a 25-metre screen was also erected on the roof of the Bill Shankly Kop.

Plastic pitch
In 1986, Preston North End decided to lay an all-weather pitch to try to generate some extra income for the club by renting the pitch to local teams to play on, to reduce the number of postponed matches as well as enabling the use of the Deepdale pitch as a training ground.

It was one of four football stadiums in the English league to feature a plastic pitch, but this proved to be unpopular with the fans and was finally ripped up in 1994, by which time it was the last remaining plastic pitch in the English league. Actually. WIKI got this bit wrong. I have it on good authority they buried it with tonnes of sand and used toilet roll nicked during the night and at low tide from Blackpool beach, put some top soil on knicked from The Pennine Hills above Burnalee and then seeded it with proper grass type stuff, thus getting a proper pitch to play on and making Blackpool beach fit for young families from Preston and old donkeys retired from playing for Blackpool to play on again into the bargain. Lancashire police are still looking into the hole they created on Pendle Hill.

How to get there, beer, grub etc.
All in here, come back when you are done (please).

Directions, pubs, grub etc. - footballgroundguide.com

The Splash, statue of Sir Tom Finney
(By Steve Daniels)


Outside the Sir Tom Finney Stand, is a statue of the famous player himself, sculpted by Preston-born sculptor Peter Hodgkinson. (How novel - getting a sculptor in to do a sculpture). The statue, unveiled in July 2004, was inspired by a photo taken at the Chelsea versus PNE game played at Stamford Bridge, in 1956. Other players were repotedly wearing flippers and snorkels due to the amount of water on the pitch that day.

Some more Mirfy Stats
Right enough of the guff. A few stats based screen grabs courtesy of soccerstats.com, sportstats.com or others (you know who you are) to follow and and let's get on with the game. Town have now gone 9 games without a draw so we are probably well overdue one, but 3 points to replace those that the Wendies knicked on Sunday would do for a start. Preston are on a 4 match unbeaten run.

Recent results


Head 2 Head




Form Table


League Table


Peonies? Say PNE's out loud, repeat ad nauseum until you get it.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, young Luddite.

Wagz sayz Scanz playz. Or at least he's fit and in the squad.

[theo_luddite]

Young? - you're a sweet talking bugger you are Snoots.    I hope AmChaff appreciates it.

I'll have you know I celebrated yet another birthday last week and the wrinkles just keep coming. The hairs disappeared yonks ago. I'm combing over the ear and nose hairs these days. Lot's of readers but so few comment so far ... c'mon you blues. Have all your 'puters and phones run out of black ink or what? Come on, lets be 'aving you!! Bash the button's and make the wheels go round chaps and chapesses!! Don't be shy just because we've lost one.

We are down to 4th on goal difference after Tuesday's matches, 3 points at Both Ends even more important now but not the end of the world if we don't get them.

---

I see Beckford is injured again and it's only October

[St Charles Owl]

Big bounce back performance required for you guys, get the confidence back and stop the media talking about your inevitable drop down the table. Newcastle look odds on to get one of the top spots and Norwich look good for 2nd, going to take a great run by someone to beat either of those teams so it looks like the playoffs for the rest of us.

[WakeyTerrier]

Another cracking thread, giving PBE a miss tonight as I have a works meeting at 3 and have no idea when it will finish..that and I can't be ars#d going over CarPark 62 and sitting out in the cold.
So that's Barca v Citeeee on the goggle box for me and Radio commentary of the PBE v Town match for Mitzi, are we on FM tonight?.

I've been to PBE a few times in the past, in fact I've sat/stood in 3 different sides of the ground now, just got opposite the tunnel to complete the set. I've seen us play on the infamous plastic pitch they had(I'm sure it finished 3-3) and I've seen us lose many time on the green green grass. Never had a problem with plastic pitches and these days they are very much improved, I wouldn't say no to them being introduced again especially for the clubs further down the league pyramid.

Cracking WMC near by that let you park in the club car park and then let you take advantage of the cheap beer it offers but for the life in me I can't remember what it's called but it's literally 5mins walk from the away end.

Prediction for Tonight, another close encounter but I think we'll see goals. I'm thinking Town will bounce back with a 1-2 victory with goals from Kachunga and Wells which will fire us nicely back into second and who knows if we get a couple of early goals we might just go on to score the 12/13 that we need to go back to the top of the league.

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Great thread again theo
Went to PBE last season....it was the day I saw a young Phillip Billing become a right player. Where is he these days? He's not even getting onto the bench?
That WMC you talk about Wakey, does it have a crown green bowls pitch there as well? If so I went there last season and had a right session there. Very cheap beer.
I think we might win this one. Or at the very least a draw.

[jjamez]

Hopefully we show that bouncebackability which has been evident this season. Also hope we have a few more shots than sunday. More wwe shoot the more chance we have of scoring. Lets not go for the perfect goal until we are 3 goals ahead, it looks good when it goes in but its annoying and frustrating when we fluff opportunities to score because we want to walk it in

[Lord Snooty]

Like Newcastle and Ipswich, this is another ground we haven't won at for donkey's years. 1969/70, the year we got promoted to the old First Division.
Yes we can.

[themaclad]

Wet and windy gloriously sunny today, man up fella real weather this side of the divide, should be a good game we will park the bus

---

Young? - you're a sweet talking bugger you are Snoots.    I hope AmChaff appreciates it.

I'll have you know I celebrated yet another birthday last week and the wrinkles just keep coming. The hairs disappeared yonks ago. I'm combing over the ear and nose hairs these days. Lot's of readers but so few comment so far ... c'mon you blues. Have all your 'puters and phones run out of black ink or what? Come on, lets be 'aving you!! Bash the button's and make the wheels go round chaps and chapesses!! Don't be shy just because we've lost one.

We are down to 4th on goal difference after Tuesday's matches, 3 points at Both Ends even more important now but not the end of the world if we don't get them.

---

I see Beckford is injured again and it's only October

You may score 12/13 Wakey but we'll still score one more

---

Sorry quoted wrong thread DOH

[theo_luddite]

Nice one themaclad.

What makes you think I was referring to the weather and not the travelling Town fans with the wet and windy Wednesday night bit ??
The Lamb & Packet on Friargate (by the University) is one of my favourite watering holes for the wet part. A bit off the track on the walk to the stadium from the station but worth the diversion in my opinion.