[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town welcome Preston North End to the John Smith's Stadium on Saturday afternoon for another eagerly anticipated EFL Championship match. A match that Town go into with the unusual feeling of being full of confidence. It's the first time since the 18th of November 2017 that we start a match in the top half of a league table. We shouldn't get carried away yet, we've only scored 5 goals in the opening six games, but after the traumas we've been through in the last few seasons, we'll take any bit of optimism going. It's four games unbeaten and ten points from the last possible twelve. Let's keep it coming.

Carlos Corberan has shown that he's not going to make wholesale changes to the team when it's not needed. On the other hand, he's not afraid to leave the stars of the team out, as with Christopher Schindler sitting on the bench on Tuesday night. Frazier Campbell played all 90 minutes in that match, his first full 90 for a while. Will he be up for another full game, with lots more to come in such a short space of time before the next international break? And then there's Lewis O'Brien.

As for Preston they have 7 points so far. All of them being won in away games. They got three of them on Wednesday night with 2-0 win at QPR, with two penalties, scored by two different players, Daniel Johnson and Scott Sinclair. Three more points came before the international break when they had a brilliant result down at Brentford, coming back from two down at half time to win 4-2.


A brief history of Preston North End: formed in 1878 by the local cricket club, looking for summat to do in the winter. They have always played on the same ground, Deepdale, making it the longest serving Football League stadium (Burnley's Turf Moor being the 2nd longest). They turned professional in 1883 and by 1888 they had reached their first FA Cup Final, which they lost 1-2 against West Bromwich Albion. They were one of the 12 founder members of the Football League later that year. (How many of the other 11 can you name, without Googling? Clue, all from the north or midlands)

So that first season, somebody has to win it and look who did, yes, Pressed on Both Ends, no less, winning with 11 points to spare from runners up Aston Villa (oops, there's one of them). John Goodall was the league's leading scorer with 21. Not only did they go the whole season unbeaten, they went on and won the FA Cup as well, beating Wolves (oops, there's another one) 3-0 with goals from Fred Dewhurst (who had scored in the previous year's final), Jimmy Ross and Sammy Thomson. So in doing so, became the first team ever to do the double of League and FA Cup.

The following season they retained the title, becoming the first team to win it twice in a row. Not as convincing this time, winning by only 2 points from runners up Aston Villa. They did have the biggest win in the league so far when they beat Stoke (oops, another one) 10-0, but that was nowhere near the club record. They had beaten Hyde 26-0 (no, they weren't one) in 1887 in the FA Cup, which is still an English record.

This side had become known as The Invincibles, a name that would be stolen by Arsenal more than a century later, but the next season that invincibility was on it's way out. They came runners up behind Everton (no more clues now ), thus failing to win three in a row, a feat that would not be achieved until the 1920s when Huddersfield Town did it.  

And that was it. They have only won one major trophy since. More of that later.  

The Invincibles

They continued their good form, finishing as runners up in the next couple of seasons, both times behind Sunderland. But in 1893/94, they had their first crisis season, finishing in the bottom 3. The 2nd Division was now in existence and the bottom 3 had to take part in a Test Match, which was an early version of the Play Offs. North End beat Notts County 4-0 at home and so were spared the embarrassment of relegation. They improved in the next season to finish 4th.

The Invincible side was beginning to break up now and two of them, Nick Ross and Fred Dewhurst, tragically died of tuberculosis, both aged 31. They stayed in the First Division up to the turn of the century, but were relegated for the first time in 1901, when automatic promotion and relegation was now in use, coming back up again as Champions three years later in 1904. Two years later they were runners up again, this time behind Liverpool. But in 1912, shortly after the Titanic sank, the good ship Preston North End sank back down to the 2nd Division. Unlike the Titanic though, they rose again 12 months later as 2nd division champions, only to sink again and then come back up as champions again. Then t' war broke out and the Football League halted.

After the war, there was nearly another trophy in the cabinet, but not quite. They reached the FA Cup semi finals in 1921, but got beat 1-2 by Spurs at Hillsborough. The season after, they made it all the way to the final, but got beat at Stamford Bridge by Huddersfield Town, with Billy Smith scoring the only goal of the game from the penalty spot.

Relegation came again in 1925 and it wouldn't be until 1934 that they would come back up. In 1938, they signed a young lad who would go on to become their most famous player and also won their last major trophy to date. The lad was Tom Finney, but he wouldn't make his debut until after the 2nd World War and the trophy was the FA Cup, George Mutch scoring the goal in a 1-0 win from the penalty spot, strangely given after Alf Young had fouled him outside the box.  

Finney, later in life to become Sir Tom, played football in the early years of the war, but was called up to the Army in 1942 and served in Egypt as a tank driver. Three PNE players, Jack Owen, Percival Taylor and David Willacy were killed during the war. When the war ended, Tom finally made his Preston debut, as well as his England debut, scoring against Northern Ireland. He played and scored in the only England international match to be played at Leeds Road, on the 27th of November 1946. It was against the Netherlands and Tom scored just before half time to make the score 6-1. It would end 8-2. Proper football, on a proper football ground. That was the third of the thirty goals he scored for England from 76 appearances.

Despite being a first division footballer and an England international, Tom continued his other trade, plumbing, and became known as the Preston Plumber. Due to this, the team became known as the Plumber and the Ten Drips. He couldn't stop the drips going down the drain to the second division again in 1949, but he bunged up the leaks and was flush with success in their winning of the 2nd division championship two years later in 1951.

They were runners up in the League in 1952/53, finishing level on points with Arsenal, but missing out on goal average. They followed this up in the next season by finishing runners up in the FA Cup. In a repeat of the 1888 final, they were beaten again by West Brom. In a topsy turvy game, they were one down and then led 2-1 before finally losing 2-3. Finney won Footballer of the Year that year and again a couple of years later, becoming the first player to do so. But when he retired, aged 38 in 1960, many feared for the future of the Lillywhite Drips without the Plumber.

Plumber Of The Year

Their fears weren't unfounded and in 1961 they were relegated from the top flight of English football for the last time. They have never won their place back at the top. Their history is so much like ours. Early success in Leagues and Cups, but decline post war and more so following the scrapping of the minimum wage in 1960, when the PFA threatened to go on strike. This led to the top clubs being able to offer higher wages than the smaller clubs could. Players had more power. Finney himself was powerless when an Italian club wanted to take him, offering ten times what Preston were paying him. But now things were about to change.

They did reach Wembley again though in the FA Cup for the last time to date in 1964. They lost again. It was 2-3 again. And they had been in the lead again. Their opponents began with the word "West" again. It was West Ham Utd this time, managed by future England manager Ron Greenwood and skippered by future England World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore, with future World Cup Final hat trick scoring hero Geoff Hurst up front. And North End were a 2nd division side, with a 17 year old kid, Howard Kendall in the line up. Despite their second class status, the Lillywhites took the lead through Doug Holden, only for John Sissons to equalise a minute later. Alex Dawson put them back in front though and they led at half time. Hurst levelled things up and as they were looking at the looming extra time, Ronnie Boyce popped up with the winner in the 90th minute.

At the end of the decade, Huddersfield Town won the 2nd Division championship, with Blackpool coming up with us as runners up. What's that got to do with the history of Preston North End, you ask? Well Blackpool, their fiercest rivals, beat them to confirm promotion. Bad enough as it is, but worse than that, they relegated Preston at the same time, condemning them to 3rd division football for the first time in their history.

They bounced straight back as champions. But they only lasted three years before getting relegated to Div 3 again. Back up again in 1978 and back down again in 1981. Things were getting worse. Relegation again in 1985, this time to Division 4. It went from bad to worse and in 1986, they finished 23rd in the 4th division and in those pre automatic relegation days, Preston North End, the winners of the first ever Football League season, were having to apply for re-election. Obviously they got it and they celebrated by installing a controversial plastic pitch at Deepdale.

Plastic fantastic!

Skullduggery! It worked though. Their home form was brilliant as visiting sides struggled to adapt and the Lillywhites won promotion as runners up to Northampton Town, with ex Town player Les Chapman scoring the goal that secured it. They reached the Play Offs for the first time in 1989, but lost on aggregate to Port Vale in the semis.

They slumped again, getting relegated in 1993. Back in the Play Offs again in the next season, but failing once again. They got to Wembley, but lost 2-4 against Wycombe Wanderers. It sparked a turning point in their fortunes though. First of all, the FL insisted they rip up the plastic pitch and the club, under new ownership, started to revamp Deepdale, which was looking a bit worse for wear by now. The four sides were rebuilt bit by bit, with the first new stand being named the Sir Tom Finney Stand. They reached the Play Offs again in 1995, but it was failure again, being beaten by Bury at the semi final stage this time.

They didn't bother with the Play Offs in the next season, going up as champions of what by now was being called Division Three, after the Premier League had caused a renaming of everything. Scottish centre back David Moyes had come to Deepdale in 1993 from Hamilton Academical and had worked his way up to assistant to manager Gary Peters. When Peters was moved upstairs in 1998, with the team struggling to avoid relegation, Moyes was given the managers job and turned things around. He led them to the 1999 Play Offs, which as usual, they cocked up. They got beat in the semis by Gillingham, who would go on to lose in an epic final against Man City.

But then in 2000, Moyes led them back to the 2nd tier for the first time in 19 years. Did they win the Play Offs? No. They went up as champions, taking the title by 13 points from runners up Burnley. They did make the Play Offs in 2001 and yes, they did fail once more. After beating Birmingham City on penalties, they went to the Millennium Stadium and got pumped 0-3 by Bolton Wanderers.

Moyes left in 2002 to go and win absolutely sod all at Everton and was replaced by Craig Brown. He did nowt and was eventually replaced by Billy Davies. He got them to the Play Offs twice and guess what. They cocked up again. They made the final in Cardiff again in 2005 and got beat by West Ham. Then in the next season they lost in the semis to Leeds Urinals.

In 2009, carrying the theme on, they lost in the Play Offs, beaten this time in the semis by Sheffield Utd. Two years later though, they did leave the Championship, through the wrong end though. The club were in choppy waters financially, which for some bizarre reason saw them take that numpty from Leeds, Peter Ridsdale on to the board.

They appointed Simon Grayson as boss, after we had dumped him, and he got them to the Play Offs, where, oh for goodness sake, they got beat again. How many times is that now? This time they were beaten in the semis by Rotherham Utd. Now there's something not quite right there. Grayson was an expert at getting teams up. He'd gotten us, Blackpool and them dirty skip dwellers from Leeds promoted from what by now was called League One. Surely he would be the one who would get Preston a Play Off success.

Yes he would. Hallelujah! They went up to the Championship in 2015 via the Play Offs. They faced Chesterfield in the semi finals and beat them 4-0 on aggregate. Ex Town players providing the goals. Jermaine Beckford got three of them with Joe Garner getting the other. So off to Wembley they and their fans went, knowing full well where this was heading. But to their surprise, Grayson's boys did the job right, and how. A Beckford hat trick and one from Paul Huntington gave them a 4-0 win over Swindon Town. They were back in the Championship, where they have been ever since, flirting with the Play Offs again, but deciding in the end that they don't fancy going through all that nonsense again and so fading towards the back end of the season.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 35 wins to Preston's 34, with 23 draws.

That's 92 meetings of these two teams, one of our most played opponents. The most exciting one of course being that classic match last season during lockdown, the end to end, electric paced, errm, nil nil draw.

I jest of course. We've played each other twice in FA Cup Finals for goodness sake. This is a fixture with a proper history. It has recently gone in favour of the home side though. That point for Preston in the pandemic was only their second point gained at the John MacAlpharm Stadium. Their other point came in another goalless draw, way back in 2000/01, which was the same score in the reverse fixture and that was the last time we came away from Deepdale with owt other than a thorough spanking.

The last time North End won at ours was at Leeds Road in 1991/92, 2-1 in their favour. You have to go all the way back to 1969/70 for our last win over there. That was the season Ian Greaves led our brave boys to the 2nd division title win and the 3-2 victory at Deepdale was early in the campaign. Bobby Hoy and Frank Worthington scored for us, as well as a Bill Cranston own goal.

Talking of 3-2 wins in promotion seasons. What about the match at the JSS in 2016/17? Preston led through Aiden McGeady, before Elias Kachunga equalised. Jack Payne then put us in front, only for Jordan Hugill to level things up again. And with the match heading for a draw, not good for hopes of an automatic promotion place, Hugill inexplicably legged up Kachunga in an off the ball incident. I saw it, and luckily for us, so did the liner. And what's more, it was in the penalty area. So after a long discussion and a lot of protest, Aaron Mooy stepped up to face Chris Maxwell in the 6th minute of added on time. Typical Town, the keeper saved it and that feeling of deflation was just about to set in when...… who's this running in, first to the rebound? It's only Collin Quaner and he's only gone and buried it in the back of the net. Cue utter pandemonium as the big German beauty wheeled away to the Kilner Bank Stand and the stadium went ballistic. Whoo-hoo!  

So way back in the mists of time we go now and the 1912/13 season was the first time we met each other. Preston had just been relegated to the 2nd division and made their first visit to Leeds Road in October. Thomas Elliott scored our goal in a 1-1 draw. He scored again in the game at their place, but the Lilywhites won that one 2-1 on their way to winning the title on their way back up.

They came straight back down again though and we met again in the season before the First World War broke out. Well it had already kicked off before we kicked off the season over at Deepdale with another one all draw, with Ernie Islip scoring this time. "It'll be all over by Christmas" they said, but despite troops from both sides stopping fighting to play a game of football on Christmas Eve, it was still ongoing when Preston came over to Leeds Road in January. This time we got our first win against them with a penalty from Ralph Shields and goals from Frank Mann and Fred Fayers giving us a 3-1 victory.

Preston won promotion again at the end of that season and on post war resumption took up their place back in the first division. We joined them in the top league the following year after we got the first promotion of our illustrious history and in that first season, 1920/21, we did the double over them. Back then, a lot of games were played back to back, as in you played the same opponent the following week. Well almost this time, as we met Preston in games 1 and 3. The first match of the season was away with Sammy Taylor, who's 35 goals in the previous season had fired us to that promotion, scored the goal in a 1-0 win. We won a midweek game 1-0 at home to Burnley, then the North End came over here on the Saturday. It was that man Mann again, this time from the spot who gave us our third 1-0 victory in a row and we were top of the fledgling table. Not only that, but when you tag these three wins at the start of the season onto the 8 consecutive wins at the end of the previous season, that's a run of 11 consecutive victories, a club record that still stands today. It came to an end at Turf Moor on Monday when Burnley tonked us 3-0.

We finished level on points with each other at the end of the season, in the lower end of the league but well above relegation. So we met up again in the next season. Our meetings came late on, and we played each other over three Saturdays in April. Three? Yes, the third one was the 1922 FA Cup Final. On the 15th of April, we went over there and drew 1-1 with Jack Byers scoring. Then with a midweek loss at Everton in between, the Lillywhites came over here and left with a bit of a walloping. We stuffed them 6-0 with two players, Islip and Billy Smith both scoring hat tricks. So we went off the following weekend down to Stamford Bridge for the final full of confidence. And as we all know, we won the Cup 1-0 with that boy Smith scoring from the spot.

Preston won the first meeting in the next season, but then Town took a bit of a stranglehold on the series, winning the next six, starting with Islip and Smith again on target in a 2-0 win at Leeds Road. We did the double in the next couple of seasons as we went on to win the League titles. They'd been relegated though as we completed the Thrice Championships. We beat them in the 1932 Cup run 4-0 at home, before they won another league game against us in 1934.

In 1938 we met again in the FA Cup Final. This time they got their revenge by beating us 1-0. The goal came in the last minute of extra time, a penalty again giving our two cup finals perfect symmetry. George Mutch scored. Three players in the match went on to be managers of Huddersfield Town. Preston's Andy Beattie and Bill Shankly as well as Town's Eddie Boot were all Town managers between 1952 and 1964.

During the 50s, Jimmy Glazzard took a particular liking to playing Preston, scoring 7 times against them. And talking of legends, I never saw Glazzard play, but one of the game's greatest I did see in 1975. Bobby Charlton, at the back end of his career, became player/manager of Preston in 1973 and brought his side to Leeds Road for a 3rd division match in 1975 and scored the only goal of the game.

So what's going on down at Deepdale? Managed nowadays by Alex Neil, the former Hamilton Academical manager. He's 39 years old, was born in Bellshill and started his playing career at Dunfermline Athletic. He never made the first team there and so his big break came when he signed for Airdrieonians in 1999.

After one season with them, Dave Bassett signed him for Barnsley. At Oakwell he played in their 2nd division relegation season, scoring two goals, one of which was against Preston in a 2-2 draw at Deepdale. He trod water with the 3rd division mid table Tykes before dropping another league to join Mansfield Town, who had just been beaten in the Play Offs by Huddersfield Town.

After just one season though, Keith Curle had been replaced by Carlton Palmer in the Stags hot seat and didn't fancy Neil as a player and released him. So he went back home to Scotland and joined Hamilton Academical, where he would stay for ten years. With the Accies he won promotion to the SPL twice. In 2008 as a player and then in 2014 as player/manager. The 2014 promotion was through the Play Offs, beating Hibs on penalties.

They got off to a great start in the SPL and beat Celtic away for the first time in 76 years, which alerted clubs south of the border about a new young Scottish manager on the scene. One of them was Norwich City who were looking for someone to replace Neil Adams. They appointed him in Jan 2015 and he was in charge for that jammy draw at the JSS in March when they equalised with the last kick of the game. It turned out to be a good appointment as they were promoted through the Play Offs. But in true Norwich style they came back down again and sacked him.

And so he ended up in Preston when Simon Grayson walked out on them to go to Sunderland. Now in his 4th season with them, he has had them in Play Off contention, without really threatening to actually get in them.

Who's in their squad then? Well let's start with the goalkeeper. It's been Declan Rudd for the last couple of seasons. Last season he played all 46 games. He signed from Norwich in 2017, but had been on loan at Deepdale on a couple of separate occasions. He played all 46 games of the 2013/14 season, getting to the Play Offs in League One. He did play for Norwich though, in the Premier League, but not many games and also went out on loan to Charlton. His back up team are ex Middlesbrough goalie Connor Ripley who signed on last year but has so far only played three times and 22 year old Mathew Hudson who's only appearance in the first team to date was coming on as a sub when Jordan Pickford was sent off at Bellend Road in 2015.

In defence there's Jordan Storey, who signed from Exeter City in 2018. A big German lad called Patrick Bauer who scored the winning goal of the 2019 League One Play Offs for Charlton against Sunderland, but despite being offered a new contract, decided to move north to sunny Lancashire. Ben Davies has been a regular first teamer for the last three seasons, having come through the youth system. He had been out on loan at a few clubs before making the first team squad. Andrew Hughes has been progressing through the leagues, starting with Newport County winning promotion from the Conference to League Two, then signing for League One Peterborough, before becoming a Lillywhite in the Championship in 2018. Darnell Fisher was born in Reading but started his football career in Scotland with Celtic and played enough matches in his first season to earn himself a Championship medal. After a loan spell at St Johnstone, he signed for Rotherham Utd and then for PNE in 2017. Josh Earl came through the youth system and spent the latter half of last season on loan at Ipswich.

In midfield there's the much sent off Ben Pearson, who came through the Man Utd Academy. Republic of Ireland international Alan Browne has been there since 2013 and played in the 2015 winning Play Off campaign. Ryan Ledson came through at Everton's Academy but only made one first team game, in the Europa League. He was sent out on loan to Cambridge Utd before he signed on full time for Oxford Utd. Having been at Oxford and Cambridge, he then signed for that other well known university town, Preston.

Paul Gallagher is 36 years old now and has over 500 games behind him, scoring just over a hundred goals. He started at Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League, played for Leicester in the Championship and had three loan spells at Preston before signing permanently in 2015, helping them win the Play Offs. Brad Potts came from Barnsley last year and cost them a million and a half. Daniel Johnson has over 200 appearances for PNE, having joined in 2015.

Forwards include Tom Barkhuizen, who came from Morecambe in 2017. Jayden Stockley was prolific with Exeter and signed for PNE in January last year. Sean Maguire is another ROI international in the side, having signed from Cork City.

Veteran striker David Nugent is in his second spell at Deepdale, having been there before between 2005-07, when he became the first Preston player to play for England since Tom Finney. He's played at the top level with Portsmouth, Burnley, Leicester and Middlesbrough and signed for Preston from Derby last year. If rumours are to be believed, he nearly joined us on deadline day, but didn't.

Emil Riis Jakobsen is a new signing. He's a Danish u21 international and signed on the 1st of October, making his debut from the bench in the 4-2 away win at Brentford. The match at QPR on Wednesday night was his first start.

The big name in attack is Scott Sinclair who has been around the top end with the football elite, so much so that he won himself a trophy wife in Rosie Webster from Coronation Street. He signed for Chelsea having made his breakthrough playing for Bristol Rovers. Like most young uns that Chelsea sign, he was sent out on loan. He went to Championship teams Plymouth, QPR, Charlton, Crystal Palace, Birmingham and then a season with Wigan in the Premier League, before he signed for Swansea and helped them win promotion to the Prem. After three seasons at Swansea, moneybags Man City forked out £8m for him, which for the appearances he made worked out at around a million quid per game. He had loans at WBA and Villa, then joined Villa permanently, before moving north to play for Celtic. He had three seasons there winning three Premiership titles, three Scottish Cup winners medals and three Scottish League Cup winners medals. But then in 2018 he moved back to Lancashire so Rosie could return to her day job.

ar Rosie n ar Scotty on Blackpool beach

PNE's line up down at QPR on Wednesday night:

1. Rudd
15. Rafferty
5. Bauer
14. Storey
16. Hughes
18. Ledson
44. Potts
11. Johnson
8. Browne
31. Sinclair
19. Riis Jakobsen

Subs:
10. Harrop
12. Gallagher
20. Stockley
23. Huntington
24. Maguire
25. Ripley
29. Barkhuizen



Club connections: As mentioned above, Andy Beattie and Bill Shankly both played for PNE in the 1938 Cup Final against Town and later both came to Leeds Road as manager. Shanks of course, went on to manage Liverpool and became so much of a legend there that he now has some gates named after him at Anfield. But what about Beattie?

He was born in 1913 in Kintore, near Aberdeen and started his working life as a quarryman working for Inverurie Loco Works. The workers there had a football team and young Andy soon was to make his name as a combative full back with them. His reputation spread and he signed for Preston in 1935. The Lillywhites were a 1st division team and Andy got picked to play for his country, earning himself 7 caps.

Unfortunately for him, his FA Cup winners medal would be the last thing he won as, like many other footballers, the war came and curtailed his career. He did play some wartime matches and was still on Preston's books post war, but when he retired, his tally of matches was a mere 125, despite being at Deepdale for 12 years.

He left Preston to manage Barrow and then Stockport County, both in Division 3 (North), transforming both from mid table obscurity to promotion challengers. Then in 1952 he left Edgeley Park to become manager of struggling first division side Huddersfield Town. Unfortunately, arriving in April, he was unable to do anything to stop the club being relegated for the first time ever, ending 32 years in the top flight. To his credit though, he did get us back up there and got us to our highest league placing since 1936, when we finished 3rd in 1953/54.

The 1952/53 campaign, in which he was in charge of the team promoted as runners up behind Sheffield Utd, was quite a remarkable one. It showed just what can be done with a consistent starting line up as the entire defence played every game, as well as Vic Metcalfe on the wing. Top scorer with 30 was Jimmy Glazzard and he only missed the last match of the season, in which his replacement Ron Shiner, scored a hat trick. One match in particular worthy of a mention is the Easter game at Leeds Road against Everton, when Glazzard scored 4 goals in an 8-2 win. There were also big wins against Barnsley (6-0), Lincoln City (5-0) and Southampton (5-0).

So back in the big league again and the big wins kept coming. The first 4 games were unbeaten and after beating Portsmouth 5-1, with Glazzard bagging another hat trick, the Town were once again top of the league. Glazzard was top scorer again, including another couple of hat tricks, one against Sheffield Utd in a 6-3 win away and the other at home to Aston Villa in a 4-0 win. We were very much in contention to win the title throughout the season, but faded badly towards the end, three straight defeats in April capping it off. We did finish third though and only 6 points behind champions Wolves.

One excuse for that fade away in April could be that the manager might have had his eye elsewhere. In February, Beattie had been made Scotland's first ever manager in preparation for the 1954 World Cup. The British Home Championships was then used as a qualifying group and by April, the Scots and the English had already qualified by the time England went to Hampden Park for the annual fixture. Ron Staniforth, who had followed Beattie from Stockport to Leeds Road, was in the England team that won 4-2.

Now if you think that the Scottish Football Association are a shambles nowadays, get a load of this. FIFA allowed each competing nation in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland to take 22 players. The SFA decided just to take 13, leaving the rest of the squad back at home awaiting a possible call up. However the Scottish dignitaries and their wives travelled in huge numbers. Beattie was nae a happy man! After the first game, a 0-1 defeat against Austria, he resigned. They lost the next game 0-7 against the defending champions, Uruguay, a national record defeat that still stands today.

Back in Huddersfield, the next campaign wasn't as good, even though Glazzard bagged 32 goals, we finished 12th. The next season was disastrous and we went down again. Beattie stayed on but, having brought Shankly in as his assistant at the start of the season, he resigned in November, to be replaced by his ex Preston team mate. Before he left though, he had been back up to Aberdeen and unearthed a right diamond of a player who would go on to be one of the greatest footballers ever to play the game. His name was Denis Law.

So out of a job, Beattie moved back to Preston and got himself a new career as a sub-postmaster at Penwortham. He stuck that out for a couple of years but then went back into football management with Carlisle Utd, then Nottingham Forest in Division One and then Plymouth in the 2nd div. His next move was back in the First Division with Wolves, but like with his appointment at Town, he arrived too late to avoid relegation and then resigned nine games into the next season. After that he held various roles with Brentford, Notts County, Sheffield Utd and Walsall, before his old mate Shanks gave him a scouting Job at Liverpool.

He retired after that and sadly died in 1983 aged 70. But his name lives on. Last year it was announced by Aberdeenshire Council that a new street on a business park in Kintore was going to be named Andy Beattie Way.  

Beattie's predecessor in the Town Managers job was another Preston connection, George Stephenson. No not the famous railway engineering pioneer, this one was the brother of Town legend Clem Stephenson. The two brothers played together at Aston Villa after George arrived there through very unusual circumstances in 1919. He was one of the Leeds City players auctioned off by administrators after the club had been disbanded. He was an inside forward with a quite reasonable scoring record and after Villa he played for Derby and Sheffield Wednesday before turning up at Preston. He had one season at Deepdale, playing 25 times and scoring 16 goals before transferring to Charlton Athletic. Injury forced him to retire in 1937 and take up a back room job, which led to him becoming assistant to Jimmy Seed. Then after the war, he managed Town in the near relegation years of 1947 to 52.

Les Chapman, who I wrote more about in the Rochdale thread, also managed Preston and played for both us and them. And of course there's Simon Grayson, who managed both clubs successfully. He took over the Town job when Dean Hoyle decided to get rid of popular manager Lee Clark and replace him with some joker from Leeds! Well Dean got lucky and it worked out well. Well he got us through the Play Offs but was soon dispensed with in the next season. So he went to Preston and got them up through the Play Offs as well. He stayed there a bit longer than he did with us, but as soon as "big club" Sunderland came knocking, he was offski!

Frank Worthington, legend of football field and after dinner bants, played for Town, who were his first club and PNE, who were his 12th. He came to us in 1966 and is currently positioned 26th= on the all time Huddersfield Town goal scorers list with 48, equal with Duncan Shearer and David Cowling. He made his Town debut in 1966/67 in an away game at Crystal Palace, started the next game at Blackburn and came on as a sub at Plymouth. By the start of the next season he still hadn't put in an appearance at Leeds Road and didn't until coming on as a sub against Rotherham in Oct 67. That led to a few consecutive starts for him. On the 25th of November, my dad took me to my first Town match, a home game against QPR and I never realised until many years later, the goal Frank scored in that 1-0 win was his first Town league goal (he'd scored one in the League Cup already), coinciding with my first game. He became a bit of a hero of my young self. So much so that I would sulk whenever I got to the game and see that Paul Aimson was wearing the no 9 shirt. Aimless Aimson my witty young prick of a 9 year old self called him.  
Anyway, Aimless left in the summer of 69, which Bryan Adams never mentioned in his song. He went to York City and Frank was now first choice. And so it was Frank's goals that powered us to the 2nd division title in 69/70, top scoring with 18. He top scored again in the 1st division, but unfortunately only scored 5 times in the relegation season. His head had been turned by transfer speculation, with Liverpool being favourites, only for the move to fail and he ended up in Leicester. And the rest is for some other day, but by 1987 he'd turned up at Deepdale, between stints at Tranmere and Stockport, scoring 3 times for them in 23 appearances.

When Frank left, Town invested a huge chunk of the money received on Manchester United's Alan Gowling. He had played for the Reds at Leeds Road in the previous season when they beat us 3-0, which was the last time George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton scored in the same match. My dad never took me to that one. Anyway, he had three seasons with us, but despite him being leading scorer in each of those with 17, 25 and 19 goals, we went down from the 2nd to the 4th division. Those 61 goals though puts him 18th in our all time goal scoring list.
He left us to be a strike partner for future Town manager Malcolm MacDonald at Newcastle, helping them win promotion and then scoring at Wembley in the 1976 League Cup Final, when the Geordies lost another Cup Final, 1-2 to Man City this time. After Newcastle, he teamed up with the bloke he'd replaced at Town, signed by Ian Greaves at Bolton. Whilst there he became chairman of the PFA, succeeding Gordon Taylor (whatever happened to him?   )
After Bolton, he went to Preston, scored 5 goals in 40 games and then retired.

One game England manager Sam Allardyce had one season at Town, signed by Mick Buxton in 1984. His time here is only remembered for getting sent off against Fulham. Wallop!
He had two spells at Preston. Two years after playing for us in the 2nd division, he dropped down to the 4th to play for them but helped them get promoted. After this, he got into coaching and started his much travelled managerial career. After stints as player/coach at West Brom and Limerick, he returned to Deepdale as assistant to the aforementioned Les Chapman and when he got sacked, Sam had 12 games as caretaker manager. He didn't get the job full time though. That went to John Beck. Sam stayed on as youth coach, but went to be manager at local rivals Blackpool and the rest is...….. well a long managerial career with not many honours, but somehow he ended up in charge of the national team.

Steve Doyle won promotion from the 3rd division with both PNE and Town. He was an apprentice at Preston when he made his debut as a 16 year old in 1974 and signed his first professional contract for manager Bobby Charlton. He played a major part in their 1978 promotion, but was also there when they went back down again in 1981. He came to us, signed by that man Mick Buxton, in 1982 and won promotion with us in his first season. He played 197 league games for Preston, 184 for us and then left for Sunderland and topped the hundred mark with them as well. A tough tackling ball winner, he wasn't a prolific goal scorer, only getting six for us, but one of them was at Leeds Road in a 2-2 draw with the Skip Dwellers of Beeston, that match when their fans got a bit unruly in the open end. Yes that one where there were coppers on the pitch and Peter Lorimer played a one/two with one of them and claimed a goal. Same old Leeds, always cheating.

Ronnie Jepson didn't turn pro until he was 25. There are rumours, true or not, as to why. Not going into that now. But when he did turn pro it was with Port Vale, signed by ex Town player John Rudge from Nantwich Town. He sat unused on the bench in the 1989 Play Off Final as Vale got promoted and in the following season was sent out on loan to Peterborough and then Preston boss Les Chapman, paid eighty grand to take him to Deepdale. He had a couple of seasons there, scoring 12 goals in 43 games before transferring to Exeter City. That move would bite PNE on the arse as his goals helped the Grecians avoid relegation, just one place above Preston who went down.
And then, aged 30, his career took off when Neil Warnock signed him for Huddersfield Town. He formed a deadly strike partnership with young Andy Booth and their goals took us to the Play Off Final, where we beat Bristol Rovers and despite Boothy scoring 30 goals, it was the Rocket who won Player of the Season. He frittered the rest of his career away in Lancashire and then followed Warnock around the country.

Tom Clarke had 8 seasons with us, coming through the Academy and 7 seasons with Preston, working his way up to being club captain. In one match he squared up as opposing captain to his brother and former Town teammate Nathan Clarke, who was skipper of Leyton Orient. When he was with us, he had some long term injuries, thus restricting his appearances in those 8 years to just 112. At Preston though, he made 198 appearances, including a Play Off victory at Wembley when they beat Swindon 4-0 in 2015.

Three of those goals came from Jermaine Beckford, who was playing for them on loan from Bolton. He of course, had previously been on loan with us from Leicester and his goals helped secure our Championship place when it looked like we could well be going down. He scored one of the goals in that memorable 2-2 draw in the last game of the season at home to Barnsley.

Beckford had been assisted in that Play Off Final by another ex Town loan player, Joe Garner. He had been with us in 2010, on loan from Nottingham Forest, playing the first half of the season, but despite some good performances, he didn't score a single goal for us and following a shock 0-1 defeat on Boxing Day at home to Hartlepool, he was sent back to Forest. He found his scoring boots though in the Lillywhite shirt, netting on 57 occasions which earnt him a big move to Scottish giants Rangers. He only stayed there for a season though before returning to the Championship with first Ipswich and now Wigan, with whom he suffered an unlucky relegation last season.

Pawel Abbott came to us on loan initially from Preston in 2004 after the club had sold Jon Stead to Blackburn on the final day of the transfer window. They were in the 2nd division then and we were in the 4th, so it was quite a drop for a young player who had been regularly in the first team. However, he had only scored twice in the first half of the season and so we were a bit lukewarm to hear of the signing. We soon went from lukewarm to gushing though as he started hitting the back of the net. He scored on his debut, coming off the bench at half time to score a late equaliser at Bristol Rovers and then scored a controversial winner on his home debut against Lincoln City, rounding the keeper, who had stopped play on seeing an offside flag. Playing to the whistle though, Pav put the ball in the net and it counted as the ball had last touched one of theirs. He then made it three in three, scoring our first in a 3-1 win at home to Yeovil Town.
No matter how many goals he got in the bright blue and white though, he will always be remembered for the one he gave away. That was down at Cheltenham in the last game of the regular season when all we needed to do was win to go up automatically. Leading through an Andy Booth goal, Pav received the ball in an attacking position, but facing the wrong way dribbled the ball all the way down the touchline and with nobody offering for a pass, he played a short pass back to Paul Rachubka in goal. Much too short though and it was intercepted by Shane Duff, who equalised and Torquay Utd went up instead. Didn't matter though, we went up via the Play Offs.
He more than made up for his misdemeanour in the next season, back up in the 3rd division. He had by now signed on permanently for Town and hit 27 goals, including a hat trick at Port Vale. He scored 14 times in the next, with a new club record as well when he scored in the first 6 games of the season. The goals began to dry up though and he was sold to Swansea in Jan 2007. Not before one last thing of note. Playing away at Doncaster Rovers, in the first ever match at the Keepmoat Stadium, he got sent off and that was his last game for us. Not a great way to sign off, but he did leave us having scored 51 times, putting him in 23rd position in our all time goal scorers list.

BBC pundit Kevin Kilbane despite being born in Preston, played internationally for the Republic of Ireland. He gained 110 caps for the country of both his parents' birth, including 66 consecutively. He started his career with his home town club in 1994 and they won the 4th division title in 1996. He hadn't made the first team then, but broke through at the start of the next one in the 3rd division, making his debut in a defeat at Notts County. They finished 15th that season but Kevin must've impressed somebody at the Hawthorns as in the summer West Brom made him their first £1m player.
That was a lot of money for what back then was a mid table mediocre Baggies set up and in 2000 Kev was transferred to Sunderland in the Premier League for a bit of a profit, Peter Reid forking out £2.5m for him. His form dipped and he became a fans scapegoat there and was saved in 2003 when his old Preston team mate David Moyes bought him at a cut price for Everton. He stayed at Goodison for 4 seasons, then moved to Premier League lesser lights Wigan and then Hull. It was from Hull that he came to us in January 2011. He played 31 times in that second half of the season, obviously not losing any of the league games he played in and he scored 3 times for us, one of them in the Play Off semis down at Bournemouth. He also slotted home one of the penalties in the shoot out.
His football career fizzled out after then, but Kevin from Preston is now a major TV personality and got married in September to his Dancing On Ice partner Brianne Delcourt in Canada and they have a baby on the way. His eldest daughter from his previous marriage has Down's Syndrome and he became a patron of the Down's Syndrome Association, writing a letter of complaint to the FA after hearing disgusting chants from moronic West Ham fans about the condition.

Tommy Miller started at Hartlepool, then went to Ipswich, from where he went to Sunderland. When Roy Keane became their manager in 2006, he didn't rate Tommy so he sent him out on loan to Preston. He didn't rate him so much that he let him play for Preston against his parent club, such was the arrogance of the bloke. And you guessed it, Preston won 1-0 at the Stadium of Light. So Keane recalled Tommy, didn't play him and then released him at the end of the season.
He went back to Ipswich, then to Sheffield Wednesday, before joining us in 2011. He only stayed for one season, but it was a promotion season, the one where we beat Sheff Utd on pens. Not that he helped at all with that. He took the first one, which Steve Simonsen saved. Not only did he miss that one though, he missed one in the Johnstone Paints Trophy penalty shoot out as we lost at home to Bradford City, in our last ever (hopefully) match in this competition.
Tommy is now back in his native north-east as assistant manager at Spennymoor Town.

Jon Parkin is a bit of a cult figure. A Barnsley lad, he started out with his hometown club and toured the lower leagues before finding his way to the Premier League with Stoke City. It was in the Championship with Preston though that he made a name for himself. His goals fired them to the Championship Play Offs and having failed, the next season saw him score a hat trick at Bellend Road in a remarkable 6-4 victory over the Champions of Europe. He then went to Cardiff, from where he came on loan to us. He only played three times but one of those was that memorable 4-4 draw at Hillsborough when Jordan Rhodes scored four times.

Calum Woods signed for us in 2011 from Dunfermline Athletic and at the end of his first season helped us win promotion through the Play Offs. He was one of the players who did the business in the 8-7 penalty shoot out victory over Sheffield Utd. He took the 8th one. He stayed with us for a couple more seasons, then dropped a division to join PNE and helped them up to the Championship, playing there, as he had with us, for Simon Grayson. Now 33 years old, he's without a club, having played last season for Tranmere Rovers.

Bob Kelly played over 600 matches as a professional, despite having the First World War interrupting his career. He played around half of that total for Burnley, making his way into the England side as well. Then his transfer to Sunderland broke the country's record transfer fee when he was sold for £6,500. And then he joined the Thrice Champions Huddersfield Town. He'd miss out on a League title winners medal and would get two FA Cup runners up medals with us. He had 14 England caps, but only two while he was at Town. One of those was the famous Wembley Wizards game when he was one of five Huddersfield Town players in the match against Scotland. He scored England's consolation goal in a 1-5 defeat. He was knocking on a bit though and by the time he left us to go to Preston in 1932, he was 37 years old. Age didn't stop him though, he played a couple of seasons at Deepdale, helping them get promotion to the First Division. He scored 17 goals in 78 matches for them before taking up a player/manager role at Carlisle Utd. He scored 42 goals for us, placing him in 38= position, alongside Ronnie Jepson and Lee Novak.

And finally Akpo Sodje signed for Town when his brother Efe Sodje was club captain. He didn't play much. Only 7 appearances. His total career matches though is over 300, but he never made over 50 for one club. He could never settle anywhere by the look of things. Seven years after his last game for us and after a short time in China, he turned up at Preston, played 14 games, scored four goals and then was on his bike again, this time to Scunthorpe. He is now on the run from the law. Three of his brothers, Efe one of them, were sent to prison for money laundering and an arrest warrant was issued for Akpo. So, if you've seen this man, he's probably got a bigger price on his head than he ever did as a football player.

Also played for both: Jim MacAuley, Graham Bell, John Kelly, Brian Greenhalgh, Chris Lucketti, Jim Branagan and Kevin Gallacher.


Preston in popular culture: The town achieved city status in 2002, but is probably best known as that place you pass on the way to Blackpool. So much so that Britain's first motorway was in fact the Preston by pass, which became the M6, such was the British motor car driving public's desire to go around the place.

The most famous person to come from the town (as it was still a town) was Eddie Calvert, 'the Man with the Golden Trumpet'. He was born in Preston in 1922, just 6 weeks before Preston North End lost the FA Cup Final to Huddersfield Town. He grew up in the town in a family of musicians, mainly playing in brass bands and Eddie, who could play a variety of instruments, became proficient on the trumpet.

Post war, he borrowed money to travel to Manchester and played with many a dance band, gaining fame after he was televised playing with the Stanley Black Orchestra. He became a regular on radio and tv, which led to a recording contract. He had two number 1 hits in the 1950s, Oh Mein Papa, which was number 1 for 9 weeks, and Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White.

He was the first British instrumentalist to receive a gold disc and was popular throughout the decade, but then along came rock n roll and his days were numbered. He was still popular in the rest of the British Empire though and emigrated to South Africa. He died in Johannesburg in 1978 aged just 56.



Roy Barraclough may be most famous for being in Coronation Street. He was born in Preston in 1935, but got his first full time acting job with repertory theatre producer Nita Valerie in Huddersfield. His most popular role though was playing alongside Les Dawson as two aged northern women. Les played Ada Shufflebotham, and Roy was Cissie Braithwaite.



Camp comedic actor John Inman was also born in Preston in 1935. He was of course, famous for playing Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served.



Andrew Flintoff is from Preston. He won fame for being a pisshead, which somehow led him to a tv career on stuff like A League Of Their Own and Top Gear. Before this, he played a game called cricket.




Animator Nick Park, famous for creating Wallace & Gromit, was born in Preston and was so proud of his home town that he named his most evil creation, a mechanical dog, Preston.



The most famous building in Preston must be the Guild Hall. It hosted the UK Snooker Championships, one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, from 1978 to 1997. That particular event has now moved to York, but the Guild Hall is still on the Snooker venue list and last year held the Players Championship, in which Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Neil Robertson 10-4 in the Final.
It's not just snooker though and the Guild Hall has seen some of the top bands in the world perform there. The likes of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Thin Lizzy and errm….. Busted.  




Other Championship matches this weekend:

Friday:
Nottingham Forest v Derby County

Saturday:
Watford v AFC Bournemouth (12:30)
Bristol City v Swansea City
Cardiff City v Middlesbrough
Coventry City v Blackburn
Millwall v Barnsley
Norwich City v Wycombe Wanderers
Queens Park Rangers v Birmingham City
Reading v Rotherham United
Sheffield Wednesday v Luton Town
Stoke City v Brentford


Recent form - last 6 matches:
Town 1-0 Derby
Swansea 1-2 Town
Rotherham 1-1 Town
Town 1-0 Forest
Brentford 3-0 Town
Town 0-1 Norwich

QPR 0-2 PNE
PNE 0-1 Cardiff
Brentford 2-4 PNE
PNE 0-1 Stoke
PNE 0-2 Brighton (League Cup)
Norwich 2-2 PNE

Town are 9th with 10 points, PNE are in 15th with 7.


Leading scorers:
Town:
Harry Toffolo (1)
Frazier Campbell (1)
Josh Koroma (1)
Juninho Bacuna (1)

PNE:
Scott Sinclair (4)
Daniel Johnson (2)
Tom Barkhuizen (2)
Sean Maguire (2)

October the 24th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

1908: North Shields Athletic (a) NEL, WON 2-1 (Harry Wallace, Richard Morris)
1914: Stockport County (h) Div 2, WON 2-1 (Frank Mann, Ernie Islip)
1925: Newcastle Utd (h) Div 1, lost 0-1
1931: Sunderland (h) Div 1, WON 4-1 (Dave Mangnall 2, Billy Smith, George McLean)
1936: Middlesbrough (h) Div 1, WON 2-1 (Jimmy Richardson, Alf Lythgoe)
1942: Middlesbrough (a) Wartime League North, drew 2-2 (Ken Willingham, Joseph Poole)
1953: Newcastle Utd (a) Div 1, WON 2-0 (Jimmy Glazzard, Frank Brennan og)
1959: Hull City (a) Div 2, drew 1-1 (Stan Howard)
1964: Charlton Athletic (h) Div 2, lost 0-1
1970: Nottingham Forest (h) Div 1, drew 0-0
1973: Chesterfield (a) Div 3, WON 2-0 (Terry Dolan, Alan Gowling)
1981: Bristol Rovers (a) Div 3, lost 2-3 (Mark Lillis, Mick Kennedy pen)
1987: West Bromwich Albion (a) Div 2, lost 2-3 (David Cork, Duncan Shearer)
1992: Exeter City (h) Div Two (3rd tier), drew 0-0
1998: Norwich City (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 1-4 (David Beresford)
2000: Crewe Alexandra (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-1
2009: Leyton Orient (h) League One (3rd tier), WON 4-0 (Gary Roberts, Nathan Clarke, Michael Collins, Jordan Rhodes)
2015: Derby County (h) Championship, lost 1-2 (Harry Bunn)

Alf Lythgoe, who scored in the 1936 game against Middlesbrough, I owe an apology to. In an earlier thread, could've been last season, I stated that only Dave Mangnall and Jordan Rhodes had scored 5 goals in a match for Town. Alf also did it in 1935 in a 6-0 win at Leeds Road against Blackburn Rovers. All three of them scored on this date in their own eras.

Ken Willingham, who scored in the 1942 match against Middlesbrough only scored 5 times for us in 270 matches, but one of them was our quickest ever goal. He scored against Sunderland in 1935 after just 10 seconds. He also scored on his England debut, an 8-0 victory over Finland and that was one of twelve caps he got for his country.

The game in 1981 was played at Bristol Rovers' Eastville Stadium. Me and my pals went down in a clapped out old Ford Escort van. It absolutely chucked it down, we were stood on an open end in what by this time was a very dilapidated old stadium, and got piss wet through. We lost 2-3. Then we broke down on the way home.

And to keep the theme going, we went down to Norwich as well for that 1998 game, full of confidence after a great start to the season saw us actually top of the league. We got beat and also got piss wet through in a downpour on the way back to the car. That was one of those games where Iwan Roberts scored against us. He got two that game, as did Craig Bellamy.  

The defeat at Crewe in 2000 was halfway through our record run of games without scoring. We went 7 matches without a goal, which equalled the record set in 1971/72. Both of those seasons we got relegated.

Quiz time:

Name the 12 founding members of the Football League:

1. …...
   
2. …...
   
3. …...
   
4. …...
   
5. …...
   
6. …...
   
7. …...
   
8. …...
   
9. …...
   
10. …...
    
11. …...
    
12. ……
    
13. Who scored the winner in the 1938 FA Cup Final?
    
14. How many times have Preston won the FA Cup?
    
15. Who was the man with the golden trumpet?
    
16. Who was the last Preston player to play for England?
    
17. Who was Scotland's first national team manager?
    
18. David Moyes and Alex Neil both joined Preston from which club?
    
19. Who was Town's leading scorer in 1919/20?
    
20. Who scored Town's quickest ever goal?
    

[Lord Snooty]

Sorry if you wanted more. I had to clip some items as there's a limit of 65,539 characters for a post.

[themaclad]

FFS what century did you set off writing that?

[Lord Snooty]

FFS what century did you set off writing that?

At the start of lockdown.

[jjamez]

You got me stumped with the quiz, are or were Everton, villa and Notts County founder members? I could hazard some educated guesses too, like stoke

[Lord Snooty]

You got me stumped with the quiz, are or were Everton, villa and Notts County founder members? I could hazard some educated guesses too, like stoke

All correct so far.

[talkSAFT]

I know these. 6 are Midlands, 6 are Northern

[jjamez]

You got me stumped with the quiz, are or were Everton, villa and Notts County founder members? I could hazard some educated guesses too, like stoke

All correct so far.

Oo go me

[Lord Snooty]

Carlos he say, Pipa feel problem in his muscles but recovery is positive.

Danny Ward not ready yet.

Alex Vallejo still in isolation.

[theo_luddite]

Another masterpiece Snoots - you must be the first to discover the maximum characters per post - I regularly make a cock-up and try to post too many vids. That's not just a quiet beer read, that's a full bottle of vin rouge/vino tinto read - or maybe both.

Why are the emoji's so crap on here?

AmChaff- he's got far too much time on his hands - how's the garden looking? Has he got round to clearing, painting and decorating the parlour yet, or boarding the loft, fixing the dripping tap in the kitchen, replacing the dud bulb on the landing, sorting out the cobwebs in the outside privy? On a serious note I hope they don't pull the plug on you Snoots come months end. I know, times-are-a-changing again but too little faaaar tooo late for some. There's at least one another thread around for all that stuff but the way some companies and HM Gov't have gone about this is seriously taking the piss.

Enough of the politics - as noted the PNE's have all their points from away games so far and a 2-4 win at Brentford Nylons isn't to be sniffed at considering they were 2-0 down at half time. Of course, who's nylons you are sniffing (or you've got caught sniffing) is your own business, that and the News of the Screws - oh they aren't around anymore are they?

On top of that PNE under Alex Neil don't mind kicking anyone into the stands at the first available opportunity. Ask Tommy Elphick - he's been sat there since last season's game at their's and the !@*% that did it didn't even get a speaking to let alone a red card. I'm pretty sure I read about Both Ends fans moaning the ref didn't give them anything after that game. Talk about red rose tinted glasses. Hmmmph!!

The best thing that came out of that trip up the West Coast rattler was me ordering an annual subscription to Private Eye - so I don't have to scour the news stands at train stations and nearby shops anymore to look for it. Not that I've been using my 3 year rattler discount card much this year. Glad I got my money's worth out of it long ago.

It seems 'home team wins' in most of our recent meetings - may that continue until at least 17:30 or however long the ref wants to add on to the real end of play on Saturday.

3 more points please Careless Carlos.