Preston North End F.C.

Preston North End

Full name	Preston North End Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Lilywhites, PNE, The Whites, Preston, "The Invincibles"
Founded	1880 (1880)
Ground	Deepdale, Preston, England
Ground Capacity	23,404
Chairman	Peter Ridsdale
Manager	Simon Grayson
League	League One
2013–14	League One, 5th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Preston North End Football Club (often shortened to PNE) is an English football club located in the Deepdale area of Preston, Lancashire. They currently play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was a founding member of the Football League and completed the inaugural season unbeaten to become the first league champions, in the same season winning the FA Cup without conceding a goal to become the first club to achieve the English football "Double". Preston's unbeaten League and Cup season earned them the nickname "The Invincibles"

Preston's most recent major trophy success was their FA Cup victory over Huddersfield Town F.C. in 1938. Many notable players have played for the club, including Tom Finney, Bill Shankly, Tommy Docherty, Alan Kelly, Sr. and Graham Alexander.

Based on results achieved during 112 seasons in the Football League from 1888–89 to 2010–11, Preston were ranked as the fourth most-successful English football club of all time domestically, while only Notts County had played more Football League games than Preston.

History

Main article: History of Preston North End F.C.

Preston North End was originally founded as a cricket club in 1863, by Mr Walter Pomfret of Deepdale Road, who was the first person to rent the field on which North End has always played. The original rent was £8 per year. As Preston already had a strong town's club, they adopted the "North End" suffix because they moved to the North End of the town when Moor Park opened, playing their matches at Moor Park. Prior to that they played at Bow Lane. The club adopted rugby union code in 1877, but one year later they played their first game under the rules of association football, and in May 1880 unanimously passed a resolution to adopt the association code.

Preston North End were famously successful during the early years of professional football in England. 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.

In 1888–89, they became the first league champions and the first winners of "The Double", becoming the only team to date to go throughout an entire season unbeaten in both the league and FA Cup – winning the FA Cup without conceding a goal.

Preston were league champions again the following season, but have not won the title since. The club's last major trophy was an FA Cup triumph in 1938.

Preston North End in 1888–89, the first Football League champions, subsequently doing 'The Double'

Preston's most famous player, Sir Tom Finney, played for the club between 1946 and 1960. Finney is considered to be one of the greatest footballers of all time, and was also a local lad, dubbed the "Preston Plumber" due to his professional training as a plumber. Finney remains the club's top goalscorer, with 187 goals from 433 appearances, and also scored 30 international goals for England.

Following Finney's retirement, Preston were relegated to the Second Division in 1961 and have not played in the top division since. The club did reach the FA Cup final in 1964, but lost to West Ham United. Preston were relegated to the Third Division in the 1969–70 season. The club won the Third Division title at the first attempt and so returned to the Second Division.

Bobby Charlton, an England World Cup winner from 1966, was appointed Preston manager in 1973, but was unable to prevent the club from sliding into the Third Division in his first season and left after two years in charge. A brief respite in 1978 saw Preston win promotion back to the Second Division, but go down after three seasons. In 1985 the club fell into the Fourth Division for the first time in its history.

Under David Moyes, Preston were soon promoted to Division One from Two in the millennium.

In 1986, Preston finished second from bottom in the Fourth Division and only avoided dropping into the Football Conference because the other Football League members voted in favour of the division's bottom four teams retaining their senior status.

The arrival of new manager John McGrath saw Preston win promotion to the Third Division a year later and they were still at this level when McGrath left in 1990. Veteran player Les Chapman took over as manager, but left in October 1992 to be replaced by John Beck. The 38-year-old Beck had only recently been sacked by Cambridge United, where he had achieved two successive promotions and come close to attaining a unique third. Beck was unable to save Preston from relegation from the first season of the new Division Two. He endured a Division Three play-off final failure before quitting in 1994 to be replaced by his assistant Gary Peters.

Peters guided Preston to Division Three title glory in his first full season as manager and quit in February 1998, to be replaced by 34-year-old defender David Moyes. Preston quickly developed into Division Two promotion contenders under Moyes, reaching the 1998–99 play-offs but losing out to Gillingham in the semi-finals, before finally being promoted as champions a year later.

2000s

Preston began the new millennium by winning promotion from Division 2 in the 1999–2000 season as champions. The club almost made it two promotions in a row in 2001 but lost 3–0 to Bolton Wanderers in the Division One play-off final.

Moyes left for Everton in March 2002 and his assistant Kelham O'Hanlon took over for the remainder of the season. Preston narrowly missed out on the play-offs, and in the summer former Scotland manager Craig Brown took over as manager. Preston were little more than a mid-table side during Brown's tenure, though never in any real danger of being relegated. He left in August 2004 to be succeeded by his assistant Billy Davies.

Chart showing the progress of Preston North End through the English football league system.

Davies guided Preston to the Championship playoff final in his first season as manager, but they lost to West Ham United. The club reached the play-offs again the following year, this time losing at the semi-final stage to Leeds United. Davies then moved to Derby County (subsequently achieving promotion with them via the play-offs), and was replaced by Carlisle United boss Paul Simpson, who took over Davies's team and initially carried on where Davies left off.

Preston spent much of the 2006–07 season in the automatic promotion or play-off places. However, from March 2007 the club slid rapidly down the league. This happened despite holding on to David Nugent in the transfer window and Simpson being allowed to bring in a number of loan signings. The club failed to make the end-of-season play-offs, finishing the season in seventh place, despite a 1–0 victory over Birmingham City at Deepdale on the final day of the season.

Ricardo Fuller played two full seasons for Preston North End, scoring 31 goals.

On 11 July 2007, Nugent, the first Preston player to win an England cap for 50 years, left the club to join Portsmouth for a reported transfer fee of £6,000,000. Although the club lost only one key player and brought in several players including Darren Carter, Kevin Nicholls and Karl Hawley to reshape the team, they did not recover from their poor run of form.

In August 2007, Simpson banned the playing of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love before games, a song which had been a popular part of the pre-match music at Deepdale for over ten years, stating, "I don't know whose idea this song is at the start, because it seems to put everyone in a bit of a depression. We have to make sure we get something which the players respond to and go out and perform and the fans respond to as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we are losing games because of that song. But we have to do whatever we can to generate an atmosphere", a move which angered some Preston fans.

After a bad start to the 2007–08 season which saw the club pick up just three wins, Paul Simpson was sacked as manager on 13 November 2007.

On 20 November, Everton's assistant manager Alan Irvine was appointed as Preston's new manager on a three-and-a-half year deal. He achieved his first objective as manager by finishing in 15th place, thus securing Preston's survival in the Championship.

The following season, he led Preston to 6th place in the Championship after a good run of form towards the end of the season, qualifying for the play-offs. The club again missed out on promotion to the Premier League after losing 2–1 on aggregate to Sheffield United.

On 29 December 2008, Irvine was sacked after a poor run of results, with the club appointing Darren Ferguson as his successor on 6 January 2009. Ferguson made his home debut in a 2–0 loss to Chelsea in the fourth round of the FA Cup. However, Preston won their next two games, beating Ferguson's old club Peterborough United 1–0 and Ipswich Town 2–0. This was followed by a run of poor results and Preston were soon in danger of relegation, but a 3–2 home victory against Scunthorpe United secured their survival in the Championship.

In the 2009–10 season, Preston finished in 17th place. On 28 September 2010, Preston North End became the first away team to score six goals at Elland Road. Trailing 4–2 at half time, Preston made a sensational second-half comeback to win the match 6–4, with Jon Parkin scoring his second hat-trick of 2010 (the first being in the 7–0 thrashing of Colchester in the F.A. Cup Third Round on 2 January 2010), but his first league hat-trick in over 5 years. On 29 December 2010 Darren Ferguson was sacked following a 1–3 home defeat to relegation rivals Middlesbrough, leaving the club bottom of the Championship.

Former Hull City manager Phil Brown was appointed as Ferguson's replacement, but could only achieve his first win in his 13th game in charge. This sparked an improved run of form, but could not prevent relegation to League One, confirmed by a 0–1 home defeat to Cardiff City in April. The relegation was marked by the traditional Burial of the Coffin in Bamber Bridge on 24 July 2011.

Brown was sacked on 14 December 2011 after less than a year in charge, being temporarily replaced by Graham Alexander and David Unsworth. After four weeks of interviews, Preston approached Stevenage manager Graham Westley and he was appointed manager on Friday 13 January 2012. Following a poor string of results, including a club record run of 12 home games without a win, Westley was sacked as Preston manager on 13 February 2013.

On 18 February 2013, it was confirmed that Simon Grayson had taken charge of Preston, to be joined at the club by Glynn Snodin, who had worked alongside Grayson at both Leeds United and Huddersfield Town.

Ground

Main article: Deepdale

Deepdale

Full name	Deepdale Stadium
Location	Sir Tom Finney Way, Preston, England, PR1 6RU
Coordinates	53°46′20″N 2°41′17″W
Owner	Preston North End F.C.
Operator	Preston North End F.C.
Capacity	23,404
Field size	110 x 75 yards
Construction
Built	1875
Opened	1875 (for PNE)
Tenants
Preston North End F.C. (1878–present) Lancashire Lynx (1996–2000)

Deepdale Stadium was built in 1875 and was first used for association football in 1878. As of 2014, it has been used for 138 years. The biggest attendance seen was 42,684 for a Division One clash with Arsenal in April 1938.

In 1933, the Town End burnt down and was demolished and rebuilt. The stadium now holds a capacity of 23,404 seats, following a complete reconstruction between 1996 and 2009. The current pitch dimensions are 110 yards x 75 yards.

Museum

Main article: National Football Museum

The stadium was the original location for the National Football Museum, which opened in 2001, recognising Deepdale's status as the world's oldest football league ground still in use.

However, in 2010 the museum was controversially closed, to be relocated to Urbis in Manchester, where it reopened in 2012. The move prompted Sir Tom Finney to withdraw his personal memorabilia from the museum in protest.

Despite the museum's closure at Deepdale, the National Football Museum retained the long-term lease on its former site, which has since been used to store 90% of the museum's collection and as an "archive and research centre", but has otherwise remained vacant and closed to the public, despite periodic proposals to put the site to other uses.

Statue

The Splash commemorates Preston legend Tom Finney.

Outside the Sir Tom Finney Stand, is a statue of the famous player himself, this is known as The Splash or the Tom Finney Splash.

The statue, unveiled in July 2004, was inspired by a photo taken at the Chelsea versus PNE game played at Stamford Bridge, in 1956.

The match took place on a rainy day, with Preston playing Chelsea and players generally sliding everywhere.

The statue was sculpted by Peter Hodgkinson.

Play-off defeats

Preston have qualified for the play-offs on nine occasions, spanning all three league divisions, but have never been promoted via this route, which is a Football League record.

Preston's first appearance in the play-offs was in 1989 when they were beaten in the third tier (now League One) play-off semi-final by Port Vale.

In the fourth tier (now League Two), Preston lost in the 1994 final to Wycombe Wanderers 4–2 at the original Wembley stadium, after beating Torquay United in the semi-finals. A year later they were beaten by Bury at the semi-final stage.

Preston's next play-off appearance was in the third tier in 1999, where they were beaten by Gillingham in the semi-finals. After promotion to the First Division (now the Championship) in 1999/2000, Preston reached the play-offs in their first season, beating Birmingham City in the semi-final on penalties before being defeated by Bolton Wanderers in the final, the first to be held at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Preston reached the play-offs again in 2005, overcoming Derby County in the semi-finals to once more reach the final in Cardiff, where they were defeated by West Ham United. The following season, they were again beaten in the play-offs, this time at the semi-final stage against Leeds United.

Preston qualified for their next recent play-off campaign on 3 May 2009, narrowly overtaking Cardiff City on the last day of the season, with points and goal difference identical between the two teams, but with Preston having scored one more goal. Preston would again lose at the semi-final stage, this time to Sheffield United.

Preston's most recent play-off campaign was 2013–14, by which time they were back down in the third tier. They failed to make the final, losing 4–2 on aggregate to Rotherham United in the semi-finals.

Players

As of 19 September 2014.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Jamie Jones 3 DF Scott Laird 4 DF Scott Wiseman 5 DF Tom Clarke (1st vice-captain) 6 DF Bailey Wright (2nd vice-captain) 7 MF Chris Humphrey 8 MF Neil Kilkenny 9 FW Kevin Davies 11 MF Lee Holmes 12 MF Paul Gallagher (on loan from Leicester City) 14 FW Joe Garner 15 DF Calum Woods 16 DF David Buchanan 17 MF Kyel Reid

No. Position Player 18 FW Andy Little 19 MF John Welsh (captain) 20 DF Ben Davies 21 GK Thorsten Stuckmann 22 DF Jack King 23 DF Paul Huntington 24 MF Will Hayhurst 25 FW Jordan Hugill 26 GK Steven James 27 FW Callum Robinson (on loan from Aston Villa) 30 MF Josh Brownhill 31 MF Alan Browne 32 DF Nick Anderton 33 FW Jack Ryan

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Keith Keane (at Crawley Town until 15 December 2014) 13 MF Joel Byrom (at Northampton Town until 4 January 2015)

Former players

Main article: List of Preston North End F.C. players

Technical staff

Below is a list of non-playing personnel:

Name	Role
Simon Grayson	Manager
Glynn Snodin	Assistant Manager
John Dreyer	First Team Coach
Matt Jackson	Head Physio
Matt Barrass	Assistant Physio
John Sumner	Club Massuer
Nick Harrison	Assistant Youth Director
Ian Miller	Chief Scout

Managerial history

Main article: List of Preston North End F.C. managers

As of 1 November 2014

The following is a list of Preston North End managers since 1986, excluding caretakers:

Manager	Nationality	Period	Total					League
			G	W	D	L	Win %	G	W	D	L	Win %	Point Av.
John McGrath	England	1986–1990	192	74	53	65	38.54	165	68	45	54	41.21	1.51
Les Chapman	England	1990–1992	129	44	30	55	34.11	118	39	29	50	33.05	1.24
John Beck	England	1992–1994	99	36	20	43	36.36	87	31	19	37	35.63	1.29
Gary Peters	England	1994–1998	166	72	42	52	43.37	143	63	37	43	44.06	1.58
David Moyes	Scotland	1998–2002	234	113	60	61	48.29	196	95	53	48	48.47	1.72
Craig Brown	Scotland	2002–2004	106	36	30	40	33.96	97	32	28	37	32.99	1.28
Billy Davies	Scotland	2004–2006	101	45	35	21	45.55	87	40	31	16	45.98	1.74
Paul Simpson	England	2006–2007	67	27	14	26	40.30	62	25	14	23	40.32	1.44
Alan Irvine	Scotland	2007–2009	110	45	25	40	40.90	99	40	24	35	40.40	1.45
Darren Ferguson	Scotland	2010	49	13	11	25	26.53	45	11	11	23	24.44	0.98
Phil Brown	England	2011	51	15	15	21	29.41	42	13	11	18	30.95	1.19
Graham Westley	England	2012–2013	62	16	23	23	25.81	52	11	21	20	21.15	1.04
Simon Grayson	England	2013–	90	44	29	17	48.89	75	37	26	12	49.33	1.83

Achievements

League

• Football League First Division/Premier League (first tier)
  • Champions: 1888–89, 1889–90
  • Runners-up: 1890–91, 1891–92, 1892–93, 1905–06, 1952–53, 1957–58

• Football League Second Division/Football League First Division/Championship (second tier)
  • Champions: 1903–04, 1912–13, 1950–51
  • Runners-up: 1914–15, 1933–34
  • Play-off Runners-up: 2001, 2005
  • Play-off Semi-finalists: 2006, 2009

• Football League Third Division/Football League Second Division/League 1 (third tier)
  • Champions: 1970–71, 1999–2000
  • Play-off Semi-finalists: 1989, 1999, 2014

• Football League Fourth Division/Football League Third Division/League 2 (fourth tier)
  • Champions: 1995–96
  • Runners-up: 1986–87
  • Play-off Runners-up: 1994
  • Play-off Semi-finalists: 1995

Cup

• FA Cup
  • Winners: 1889, 1938
  • Runners-up: 1888, 1922, 1937, 1954, 1964
  • Semi-finalists: 1887, 1893, 1921

• Football League Cup
  • Fourth Round: 1963, 1966, 1972, 1981, 2003

• FA Charity Shield
  • Runners-up: 1938

• Football League War Cup
  • Winners: 1941

Other

In 1996, Preston's Third Division title made the club the third and last to have been champions of all four professional leagues in English football. This feat had previously been achieved only by Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1988 and local rivals Burnley in 1992.

Club records

• Most Goals: Tom Finney, 187 goals from 433 appearances.
• Record Attendance: 42,684 v Arsenal, Football League First Division, 23 April 1938
• Record Cup Victory: 26–0 v Hyde, FA Cup, 15 October 1887
• Record League Victory: 10–0 v Stoke, Football League Division One, 14 September 1889
• Record Defeat: 0–7 v Blackpool, Division 1, 1 May 1948
• Most League Goals: in a Season: Ted Harper, 37 in Football League Second Division, 1932–33
• Transfer Record (Paid): £1,500,000 for David Healy from Manchester United, December 2000
• Transfer Record (Received): £6,000,000 for David Nugent to Portsmouth, July 2007
• Youngest Ever Player: Brandon Zibaka 16 years and 161 days
• Oldest Ever Player: Bob Kelly 41 years and two months

Sponsors

The club's main sponsors since shirt sponsorship was introduced in 1979 have been as follows:

Years	Sponsor(s)
1979–1984	Pontins
1984–1985	David Leil
1985–1986	Lombard Continental
1986–1990	Garratt's Insurance
1990–1992	Ribble Valley Shelving
1992–1995	Coloroll
1995–2002	Baxi
2002–2005	New Reg
2005–2010	Enterprise
2010–2012	Tennent's
2012–2013	Magners
2013–2014	The Football Pools/Carers Trust
2014–	Virgin Trains

Women's football

Main article: Preston North End W.F.C.

The affiliated women's football team is called Preston North End W.F.C., they currently play in the FA Women's Premier League Northern Division.

2013 Fans' All-Time XI

In 2013, the club asked supporters to vote for the "Fans' All-Time XI". The results were as follows:

• Alan Kelly, Sr. (1958–73) Apps-511, CS-126
• Graham Alexander (1999–07 & 2011–12) Apps-421, Goals-65
• Joe Marston (1950–55) Apps-200, Goals-0
• Mark Lawrenson (1974–77) Apps-80, Goals-2
• Ryan Kidd (1992–02) Apps-318, Goals-11
• Tom Finney (1946–60) Apps-472, Goals-210
• Sean Gregan (1997-02) Apps-272, Goals-13
• Alan Spavin (1960–74) Apps-484, Goals-31
• David Eyres (1997–00) Apps-130, Goals-25
• Alex Bruce (1971–74 & 1975–83) Apps-404, Goals-171
• David Nugent (2005–07) Apps-107, Goals-37

Kelly

Alexander

Marston

Lawrenson

Kidd

Finney

Gregan

Spavin

Eyres

Bruce

Nugent

External links

• Official Website
• History of Preston North End: 1862–1945
• PNE section on Lancashire Evening Post online site
• PNE Video Archive
• Online video footage of Preston North End winning the 1938 FA Cup
• PNE Team Pics
• PNE Play-off record
• Preston North End F.C. on BBC Sport: Club news – Recent results – Upcoming fixtures – Club statistics