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Preston North End Football Club is a professional English football team. It currently (2005-2006) plays in the Football League Championship and is managed by Paul Simpson.

Nicknamed the "Lilywhites", "North End" or simply "PNE", the club is based at the Deepdale ground in the city of Preston, Lancashire.

They were founder members of the Football League in 1888 and were league champions in the league's first two seasons, but have not won a title since. Their last major trophy was the 1938 F.A Cup, and they have been outside the top division since 1961. Between 1985 and 1996 they endured five seasons in the basement division of the English League, but since 2000 they have been in the second tier of the league. They have qualified for the playoffs in 2001, 2005 and 2006, but defeats in each of these campaigns prevented them from reaching the Premiership.

Famous former managers of Preston North End include David Moyes, Gary Peters, Bryan Kidd, John McGrath, Billy Davies and Cliff Britton. Famous players to have worn a Preston shirt include David Beckham, David Healy, Jon Macken, Howard Kendall, Tom Finney and John Goodall.

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Invincibles

Formed in 1880 and one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, scoring the first goal against Burnley, winning 5-2 on 8th September 1888. Preston North End won the first league championship (1888-89) and became the first club to achieve the 'double' of winning the FA Cup (1889, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0) and the Football League championship in the same season. This double was even more extraordinary in that the league was won without a single defeat, a feat which would not be repeated in the top division until 2003-04 (by Arsenal). Equally impressive was that the cup was won without conceding a single goal.

The photo has the Preston's chairman and manager, Major William Sudell (back row, fifth from the left), who led the struggle for professionalism. He was responsible for giving "The Football League" its name and was its first treasurer. John Goodall (front row, centre) was the star of the side, winning 14 caps for England and was often nicknamed "Johnny Allgood".

During this period the team was nicknamed "The Invincibles" and featured a collection of local and Scottish players renowned for their eccentric behaviour. One centre forward used to walk his fox on the pitch during half time.

In 1887, Preston set the record score for a competitive football game in England, winning 26-0 against Hyde United in the FA Cup.

Tom Finney

Preston's most famous player is the legendary Tom Finney, one of England's finest ever forwards who combined playing throughout his long career for his home town club with running a successful plumbing business. Finney scored 30 times for England, in the company of such greats as Stanley Matthews who starred for local rivals Blackpool F.C. Finney retired as a player in 1960 but remains close to the club and still serves as Club President. Sir Tom Finney (knighted in 1998) remains a legendary figure at PNE and the "Splash" statue, based on the award winning ‘Splash' photograph of Sir Tom playing against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in August 1956, has been created by artist Peter Hodgekinson and takes a prominent position outside the ground at Deepdale.

League History

Continued Success

Well after the illustrious nineteenth century Preston remained one the major teams in English football. They played in the top two divisions of the League continuously until 1970. They also won the FA Cup in 1938, beating Huddersfield Town 1-0, the same scoreline that they had been beaten by the Yorkshire side in the 1922 final.

Cliff Britton

Cliff Britton became manager in 1956. In the next five years, Preston flirted with winning the League championship and Britton laid the foundations of a solid youth policy. Britton took the decision that would cause Tom Finney to play some of the best football of his life. At the age of 34, Finney was made centre-forward, where he was also to play three games for England. Finney was a revelation, scoring 23 goals the 1956-57 season and Preston finished third in the First Division. The next season they went one better - runners-up to Champions Wolves. However after Finney's retirement North End were relegated from the First Division at the end of the 1960/61 season and so Britton resigned.

The Cup Final

North End reached the FA Cup Final in the 1963-64 season, losing to West Ham 3-2 after a titantic struggle in front of a 100,000 capacity crowd. In that match, Howard Kendall became the youngest player at that time to play in the final.

Decline

After spending the Sixties in the Second Division, Preston were relegated to the Third Division in 1970 for the first time ever, although they did win promotion a season later. But Preston soon slid into decline and were relegated to the Fourth Division at the end of the 1984-85 season. The following season they finished third from bottom in the Fourth Division and were saved from relegation to the Conference only when league members voted in favour of them and three other league clubs rather than Conference champions Enfield.

Up... then down again

Preston won promotion back to the Third Division with John McGrath in 1987, but were relegated from the renamed Division Two in 1993. It was under new manager Gary Peters that a more permanent revival was started: Preston won promotion from Division Three in 1996, under the captaincy of Ian Bryson amid emotional scenes at their Deepdale home. Peters' reign is also notable for the League debut of a young David Beckham, making five appearances on loan and scoring two goals before being recalled by Manchester United.

On the way back?

Preston then continued to prosper under manager David Moyes who arrived in February 1998, and who clinched promotion to Division One in 1999-2000 - their first appearance in the upper tier of the Football League for almost 30 years. The first season at this level was a considerable success. They finished fourth and reached the play-off final, losing 3-0 to Bolton Wanderers. Moyes left the following March to take charge of Everton, and was succeeded by former Scottish national coach Craig Brown. The club did not do well under Brown's management and he was sacked in 2004. Ex-Motherwell boss Billy Davies then took over. The relatively inexperienced Davies surprised all the observers by guiding Preston to a fifth-place finish in the Coca-Cola League Championship and a place in the play-offs. They beat a weakened Derby County team in the play-off semi final, losing the play-off final 1-0 to West Ham United after a 57th minute strike from Bobby Zamora. West Ham were subsequently promoted to the Premiership, having only secured 6th place on the last day of the season.

Davies maintained his momentum during the 2005-06 season - finishing a creditable 4th place, but this time were knocked out in the semi-final stage of the play-offs, losing 1-3 on aggregate to Leeds United. Preston have now failed to gain promotion in no less than seven play-off campaigns (reaching the final three times - once in the fourth tier play-offs in 1994 and twice in the second tier play-offs in 2000 and 2005). This record gives Preston the dubious honour of being the most unsuccessful team in play-off history. The Lancashire team conceded the fewest goals of any team in the Coca Cola Championship for the 2005-06 season (30), fewer even than champions Reading. No one-time member of England's top tier have spent so long in the lower leagues. On 2 June 2006, manager Billy Davies left the club to become manager of Championship rivals Derby County F.C.. He was replaced by the ex-Carlisle manager Paul Simpson.

Plastic Pitch

Preston introduced a controversial plastic pitch in the mid 1980s, a move as unpopular with the fans as it was with visiting teams. The pitch was used for the last time against Torquay at the end of the 1993-4 season in the second leg of the play-off semi-finals. Losing 2-0 from the first leg, North End needed to score four goals after Torquay scored an early goal at Deepdale. Seconds from the final whistle Paul Raynor hit North End's fourth to clinch a place at Wembley, where North End went down 4-2 to Wycombe Wanderers despite an impressive overhead kick by Ian Bryson. The plastic pitch was ripped up by thousands of excited North End fans after the semi-final, who grabbed the opportunity to take a piece of history home.

Deepdale

Preston has continued to play at Deepdale since its foundation. Deepdale is the oldest, continuously used League ground in the world, with the first game being played in 1878. Today Deepdale has been refurbished extensively with the new Bill Shankly, Tom Finney and Alan Kelly (Town End) stands. It has recently been announced that Preston North End are in talks with Preston Primary Care Trust into a partnership to fund the redevelopment of the last remaining old stand, the Pavilion Stand. Planning permission is due to be submitted in June 2006 for a two tier stand with a seating capacity of between 8,000 and 9,000. When completed, the new Pavilion Stand will form the final section of the redevelopment of Deepdale into a stadium fit for the Premiership and with a total seating capacity of around 30,000. Deepdale is also the home of the National Football Museum which is the first and largest major football museum in the world. Deepdale was selected as its home because Preston were instrumental in helping to change the game, from a sport played by gentlemen amateurs, to a game played by paid professionals.

Financial Status

In the mid-80's, when performances and attendances were at an all time low for Preston, the club needed to raise £150,000 to keep the club running. A director, Barney Campbell (former owner of Campbell's Caravans), suggested each director put-in £15,000 each to relieve the crises, and all 10 directors, including a local butcher, managed to save Preston North End.

Now under the guidance of Derek Shaw and Steve Jackson, the club is generally considered in good financial health.

The club has a conservative policy on wages and periodically opts to sell players in order to balance the books and generate revenue for other areas of development. Although some fans believe this to be a hinderance to the clubs development and a sign of a lack of ambition, the team continues to perform strongly in the Championship. Such judicial management has also helped the club avoid the financial peril in which other clubs have found themselves, and indeed with which Preston has courted in the past.

Current squad

Honours

Famous players

External links

Official website

Other sites

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Preston North End F.C.".

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