October 29 2009

Crystal Palace centenary

History is only as important for those who remember it, writes Simon Pophale.

Preston North End have an illustrious history, dating back to the very formation of the Football League and its inaugural season, but with no-one around to recount such heady days, our fixtures against them have always been played against a more modest backdrop.

Back in the day, we were the would-be oiks looking to upset the established landed gentry. Preston had won the league a few times, been in a few cup finals while we were the scruffy urchins scrabbling about in the lower echelons of the footballing pyramid.

The abolition of the minimum wage in the early 1960s seemed to level out this playing field and while Preston were affected as many other clubs were, we were in the ascendancy and our first meeting took place in the 1964/65 season.

Preston won the first encounter by 1-0 at Deepdale and throughout the Sixties proved, at Deepdale at least, to have the measure of us as we failed to register a goal and even in our promotion season of 1968/69, a 0-0 draw signalled our first point up north against them.

With our relegation from the First Division in 1972/73, we met Preston again the following season but we were in freefall and Preston were struggling to cope with the rigours of the second tier, as although we played out a 1-1 draw at Deepdale, the result was hardly a surprise as both clubs fell into the third tier of the pyramid.

Throughout our time in the Third Division, Deepdale was not a happy hunting ground for us. While we managed a few draws, that elusive win was not to be.

After our promotion in 1976/77, Preston followed us into the Second Division the following season and finally we managed to take all 2 points (as it was then) as we ascended back into the top flight as champions. It also signalled the last time we would play Preston for over 20 years.

While the times were lean for Preston, they dropped as low as the lowest tier of the league in 1985 and finished in 91st place in the 1985/86 season, for us we were about to embark on that incredible journey which saw us take in numerous Wembley visits and finishing in our highest position ever, to the edge of extinction.

Preston came back to the second tier of the league in 2000 as Champions and we were rebuilding under Alan Smith’s second reign at the club. Preston made an impressive fist of that first season, finishing fourth and losing to Bolton in the Play-Off Final. Our trip to Deepdale that season was at the end of September and took all the points with goals from Jon Macken and Paul McKenna.

The following season we went to Deepdale embroiled in the “Steve Bruce situation” as he was on gardening leave and Steve Kember was in temporary charge. Despite Dougie Freedman giving us the lead, it was not enough as Richard Cresswell and Graham Alexander scored to heap more misery on our faltering season.

The 2002/03 season saw us go to Deepdale on the opening day and record only our second win there with goals from Darren Powell and Steven Kabba. It would be Trevor Francis’ only match in charge of us against Preston, as the next time we met it was another caretaker manager, Kit Symons, who would be in charge.

With all the upheaval of Francis leaving, Kember taking over and then being relieved of his duties, the 4-1 defeat that followed probably was not the biggest surprise. Dickson Etuhu, Graham Alexander, David Healy and Eddie Lewis did the damage. Shaun Derry got our solitary response.

Due to our promotion to the Premiership, we had a season off from playing Preston but lost time was more than made up in the 2005/06 season as we met them three times in two weeks. The League match ended in yet another another defeat, with Brett Omerod and Brian O’Neill scoring in a 2-0 win.

A 0-0 draw in the 2006/07 season was followed by our third win in the 2007/08 season. Neil Warnock had been in the hot-seat for only a few matches and we were in “like Clints” as Morrison and Hill scored the goals to lift us out of the gloom which had categorised the season thus far.

Last season Preston opened their new stand which saw Deepdale completed and

they celebrated this with a 2-0 win in what was their opening home match that season. Goals from Barry Nicholson and Richard Chaplow giving the all too familiar look to a defeat at Preston.

Let us hope for better on Saturday.