Crazy Prices: Sheffield Wednesday

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We kick off this new campaign with Preston North End full of renewed hope and expectation and after two successive Play-Off campaigns the bookies have cut North End’s odds to their shortest since we’ve been in the Championship.

To win the Championship Paul Simpson’s men are 16/1 chances with pnebetting.co.uk that’s with each-way odds ¼ 1-2-3. Steve Bruce’s Birmingham City are 7/2 market leaders with Colchester and Barnsley 250/1 outsiders.

If you think that finishing in the top three is a bit of a stretch at those odds then you might fancy the shorter odds of 6/1 for PNE to be promoted. That equation of course includes the possibility of North End going up via the Play-Offs – third time lucky for PNE?

Sheffield’s finest, The Arctic Monkeys are being heavily tipped to win the prestigious Mercury Music Award this September, the indie band have had an amazing rise to prominence and are 13/8 to take the prize. If the judges decide to move away from Indie then my outside tip is a young blood by the name of Sway whose album ‘This Is My Demo’ has been bubbling under nicely this last year, he’s 12/1 to take the spoils.

Other matches

Birmingham 2/5 Draw 3/1 Colchester 6/1 – Verdict Birmingham
Steve Bruce’s Blues should be too strong at home against a Colchester side who have faced much disruption this summer, take the home win.

West Brom 8/13 Draw 5/2 Hull 4/1 – Draw
Phil Parkinson has had a bit of cash to spend at his new club and hopes are high. I’m backing the Tigers to get a draw at the Hawthorns.

Barnsley 7/5 Draw 21/10 Cardiff 7/4 – Cardiff
Andy Ritchie’s men have returned to Championship level but they will find it tough against Dave Jones’ Bluebirds. I think Cardiff will just nick this one.

Southend 13/10 Draw 2/1 Stoke 2/1 – Southend
Not many teams will look forward to going to Roots Hall this season. If Freddy Eastwood can continue his excellent goalscoring form then they could win their first ever Championship match

The Fiver Five-Fold
A £5 five-fold on Birmingham, Draw, Cardiff, Southend and Preston (8/11) pays an impressive £262

Quotes: Lee Bullen – 28th July 2006

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Sometimes in football you are in limbo at certain stages of the season and certain stages of your contract and it was nice to get it sorted out in the end. I had one or two options but my first choice was always to stay at Wednesday, I’ve had a couple of good years here and I’m looking forward to the new season again.

A lot of people look at age and make that an issue, whether you are too young or too old, I am at the stage now that I am quite happy to point out that age is just a number. The fitness side of things and the training side of things, I am still at the front of running and things like that so that’s not really been an issue. A lot of people attach a bit of stigma towards somebody’s age but luckily enough I’ve got a manager who knows what I’m like and knows my fitness situation so that really didn’t come in to play. It was whether or not he decided I was good enough in taking the club forward.

If you take myself at the club there is nobody else over the age of 30 at the moment. I think the average age is very young, about 23/24, and I think that maybe caused us problems at the start of last season, a little bit of inexperience at Championship level but as the season went on the lads grew in stature and learnt a lot from the early games. We finished the season on a high so hopefully we can start the season the way we finished.

We’ve got about 12 fit senior players at the moment and we have drafted in three or four of the younger squad to tide us over during our pre-season trip away in America. Hopefully by the time we travel over to Preston we will have three or four of the senior pros back again, two or three of them look to be making good progress so hopefully they can start taking part soon.

We’ve played five pre-season games and I’ve already played in five different positions so I really don’t know what is going to happen. It was a fantastic award to get, it was a little bit tongue-in-cheek but it is still nice to be acknowledged for doing something quite different. I’m just hoping that I don’t have to put the goalkeeping gloves on again, at the moment I’ve played right wing-back, left-back and centre-half, I really don’t know what is going to happen, I think it all depends on injuries and things like that and players they have available at the time. Versatility can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing, it lends itself to a player’s form being up and down, if you are changing position all the time you can’t really get any consistency. At the end of the day if I am playing then I am not going to complain too much about it.

We are that one year more experienced, both the players and the coaching staff, the manager had coached in the Premiership and the leagues below the Championship, but not this one so it was a learning curve for him as well. We are all one more year experienced, we’ve got two or three lads in who have played at Championship level, realistically we have got to be aiming for mid-table, that would continue the progress on an upward spiral. But if you get four or five results in a row you can be up in and amongst it and your targets can change, but first and foremost we have got to be challenging those teams around mid-table. Hopefully we will get off to a good start and not be looking over our shoulders all season like we did last year.

Quotes: Graham Alexander – July 19th 2006

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He’s had a great career at Preston North End so far, he’s done really well 10 years in. It’s probably more than that if you include his schoolboy and YT years but as a professional for 10 years at one club is a great achievement. He has seen the Club rise from the lower league to being on the doorstep of the Premiership and he has been a great player for the Club over the last few years, I think now he is just coming into his peak.

Definitely, there is so much movement in football these days, there are a lot of agents involved and players can see that they can make a good living by moving around. When you get a player as good as McKenna staying loyal to Preston, I’m sure he’s had offers and heard whispers about moves to other clubs, he fully deserves his game tonight against Everton. He’s a great lad, if you speak to any player that has played with McKenna while they have been here they will say that he is one of the top three players, and that’s true in the time I have been here. He’s good technically, he trains really well, he’s fit and he’s a great lad off the pitch as well, he deserves it more than anyone else I think.

If you actually watch him he wins more headers than anyone else on the pitch, he’s a great athlete, he’s got a great spring, he’s a strong lad and since I have been here he has been one of the top players. I remember playing against him when I was at Luton, he couldn’t really live with me then, so I think he was happy to see my on his side. He’s a great player to play with, he’s got a good football brain, he’s always thinking about the game and he knows how to get the best out of certain situations.

I found it quite surprising in my first three of four years here that he didn’t get the accolades that I thought he should have. I think he has been quite underated for a lot of years, it’s only in the last two years that he has got a bit of press attention from outside of Preston and that people actually realise what a good player he is. All the players and staff that have been here over the years know what he can do but I think he has been underrated by football people away from the Club. If you actually ask people within the game they know what he can do and I’m sure there would be a lot of clubs interested in him if he ever became available. Hopefully we can keep him here at Preston because he is a top player.

He has got a great strike on him, he knows where the goal is and he has got great technique. The thing with Paul is that he wants to help the team so much that he does a lot of defending and sometimes because he is so unselfish and he helps the team he probably doesn’t get into those goalscoring positions like other people do. That’s just down to the type of character that he is, he helps the team and he puts the team first, if he became a bit more selfish and didn’t defend so much he could probably get 10 goals a season every year. He always thinks about the team first and that is what makes him the player that he is.

When David Moyes took over as manager I think it was an upturn in a lot of players’ careers, Paul was one of those players and so was I. David Moyes did really well for the Club when he was here and he did really well for a lot of the players, it’s great to see him bring his team back for this night, for Paul. If you ask Moyesy he will tell you what a great player Paul is as well, it’s going to be a special night for ‘Kenna’ and one that he deserves.

You never know, I’ve done something like seven years now and I’ve got another year on my contract and that would be a great thing to do. But three years is a long time in football, there’s probably only three or four players left from three years ago here, so much can change. It’s a long way away, it would be great for me to get that far but I am not thinking that far ahead to be honest.

Quotes: Paul Simpson – July 15th 2006

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It was absolutely roasting, I feel as if I have burnt my face watching that game today, I dread to think what it was like for the players to play in it.

It’s bound to to be fair, but it’s pre-season, it’s about getting the match fitness, we know that the lads are not going to be fully fit for the full 90 minutes. It’s about using them right and building it up so that hopefully when the start of the season comes around we are all ready to go then.

It was a fantastic workout for us, I’m delighted that Hearts have come down to play us, we knew that it was going to be tough because you normally find that the Scottish teams are two or three weeks ahead of us, they are a very good side but I’m delighted with our players, there are a lot of plusses from it and we can move on to the next match now.

I’ve said all along, I want us to be successful and I’m still not going to be drawn into saying what success is. We all know what has happened over the last couple of years and everybody wants to go one better but we have just got to keep working to make sure that we are putting a team out that does this football club justice.

I was pleased with the reaction after the second goal, I thought after the first goal went in that we lost our way a bit for 10 or 15 minutes we got a bit erratic and we were going chasing things that weren’t going to win and giving silly free-kicks away and making wrong decisions, once we settled down we started playing football and created some chances. The big thing from today is that you have got to want to score goals a bit more, people have got to want to get into the box a bit more and go and get goals for us.

Somebody landed awkawardly on him and he just had a bit of soreness and I am not prepared to take any risks with anybody so I just took him off as a precaution but I expect him to be fine.

I’m hoping so, there’s nothing imminent at the moment but as with the ones we have brought in, we go about it very quietly until the point when we can let everyone know once he signs the contract.

Sean St. Ledger should be fine for Wednesday, Callum Davidson should be fit, Alan McCormack will be fit, Adam Nowland, Brett Ormerod and Andy Smith I don’t expect to be right for Wednesday. Matt Hill probably won’t be right for Wednesday but we will probably have to wait and see if he can join in training over the next couple of days.

Callum saw the specialist on Friday and the specialist said that he has got to go and try and get on with it, work through and try and resolve the problem that he has got, he wanted to be involved today but he has only had one day’s training so I decided that it was better if he had a couple of days next week with a view to being involved on Wednesday night. There’s still a threat that that could happen, the surgeon has said that he has got to get on with it, it may heal itself, it may not but we can’t predict that at the moment.

It was a good goal, he was brave to be fair to him, we had a couple of other opportunities, Nugent put him in second half but his first touch just let him down and he didn’t get in, he had other opportunities that I felt with a little bit more concentration and a better touch we could have got more goals, but that will come over the next couple of weeks.

I was very pleased, really pleased. The big disappointment for me was the two goals, there could have been more communication for the first and we should have been stronger for the second one, the lad should not have got through there when we have got three defenders around him on the edge of the box, apart from those two things I felt that we performed very well on the day against a very good opposition.

Friends Reunited: Kevin Kilbane

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Gary Peters has a lot to answer for, if it wasn’t for the former PNE boss, three young lads from the local area might never have worn the proud Lilywhite of Preston North End and may not even have become professional footballers.

Within the space of just over a year in the mid-1990s Peters handed those three young lads their professional football debuts, the fact that the three remain firm friends and follow each other’s career is testament to what they came through to reach their goal.

Kevin Kilbane, David Lucas and Paul McKenna were all products of the PNE youth system, all three made their debuts between October 1996 and December 1997 – McKenna actually made his league debut coming on as a sub for Kilbane.

But it was Kilbane who was the elder of the three, he was the first to make his debut, the first to get a big money move and remains the only one to play in the Premiership. The Everton midfielder looks back on his time as a youngster with PNE fondly.

“It was great for me,” Kilbane told the matchday programme.

”I was brought up within half a mile of the ground, so to play for the club I supported as a boy was terrific. Paul was a year younger than me but I had known him since I was 10 or 11 years of age.

”I made my Preston debut during the promotion season of 1995/96 against Torquay United and it was obviously a big thrill. David and Paul weren’t far behind me, we had some good times together and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.”

Kilbane, a member of the 1995-96 Third Division Championship winning squad, was soon thrilling the crowds at Deepdale and it wasn’t long before some of the bigger fish in league football were soon coveting his services and in June 1997 West Bromwich Albion paid North End £1.25 to take him to the Hawthorns. It was a record fee received for the Lilywhites and a big move for the 20-year-old but he never forgot his roots or his mates.

“I keep an eye out for the results of all my previous clubs, especially Preston. Personally I always like to see Paul McKenna and David Lucas do well and I keep a watch out for Lucas doing well at Sheffield Wednesday.

“It would have been great to see Preston in the Premiership, they were unlucky to lose twice in the Play-Offs, it would have been great to see Paul display his skills in the Premiership.

“McKenna is a wonderful player with a great touch and he is a terrific passer of the ball, hopefully Preston will be there or thereabouts again this year because I would love to come up against Paul in the Premiership.”

Kilbane should get a chance to test his wits against McKenna tonight though, he’s only come up against the Lilywhites once before, for Sunderland in August 2003, it was one his last games for the Black Cats before switching to his present employers.

”I have only been at Deepdale once since leaving the Club and that was for Sunderland. It is always great to get back and I am really looking forward to the game.

”I really hope that Paul gets a good turnout because he deserves it for the loyalty that he has shown to Preston North End,” added the Preston born maestro.

Quotes: Kevin Kilbane

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It was great for me, I was brought up within half a mile of the ground, so to play for the club I supported as a boy was terrific. Paul was a year younger than me but I have known him since I was 10 or 11 years of age.

I made my Preston debut during the promotion season of 1995/96 against Torquay United and it was obviously a big thrill. Paul wasn’t far behind me, we had some good times together and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

I keep an eye out for the results of all my previous clubs, especially Preston. Personally I always like to see Paul McKenna and David Lucas do well and I keep a watch out for Lucas doing well at Sheffield Wednesday.

It would have been great to see Preston in the Premiership, they were unlucky to lose twice in the Play-Offs, it would have been great to see Paul display his skills in the Premiership. He is a wonderful player with a great touch and he is a terrific passer of the ball, hopefully Preston will be there or thereabouts again this year because I would love to come up against Paul in the Premiership.

I have only been at Deepdale once since leaving the Club and that was for Sunderland. It is always great to get back and I am really looking forward to the game.

I really hope that Paul gets a good turnout because he deserves it for the loyalty that he has shown to Preston North End.

Fanzone – Have Your Say In Next Season’s Matchday Programme

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PNE v Birmingham (06-05-07) Fan Photos

As we strive to make next season’s matchday programme bigger and better than the last we have opened up an opportunity for you the fans to have a big input into the publication.

This year’s programme will have the usual exclusive interviews, features, photo-stories and player profiles but we have also reserved quite a bit of space for a feature we are calling Fanzone.

It’s a pretty self-explanatory concept, the fans basically have carte blanche to fill three pages every week in the programme.

The kind of things we are looking for are the usual standard stuff, for example we will be running a piece called Dream Team, where you pick a favourite 11 players, favourite kit, favourite manager, favourite games and goals from history etc.

We are also looking for North End related stories either from the past or present, for example if we are playing Sheffield Wednesday you may have a particularly good story to tell of a previous game against the Owls.

We are also putting aside some space for fans photographs. So many of you take photographs at games these days and it seems such a shame to see them confined to photo-libraries on internet sites, send us your best ones each week and we will publish them in the programme.

We will also be following the progress of PNE-Online FC, they are a fans team who have done remarkably well in their first season of competition so far and hopefully next season will be just as good.

Basically this is your platform, you can send us absolutely anything at all and if it is good and we have got the space we will use it. Questions, queries, messages for particular players or even the boss, absolutely everything will be considered.

Reading the fans forum we know that there is absolutely loads of talented writers, photographers and designers out there and this is your opportunity to see some of that work in print.

If you have photos or stories which may be ready for print then you can email us at editor@pne.com. We are also looking for ideas or suggestions, not only for the Fanzone piece but the match programme, the website and our media output in general. Let us know what you want and we will endeavour to deliver it.

Many Thanks

Matt Morris and Becky Ashton

PNE MEDIA

Club Legend: Ian Bryson, Preston North End

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Ian Bryson is one of only two North End players to score a goal in a Play-Off Final for the Lilywhites. The Scottish midfielder was involved in one of PNE’s most thrilling of Play-Off campaigns in the 1993/94 season, it would almost inevitably end in disappointment, but the former PNE captain still has fond memories of that month of May in ’94.

You gave yourself and uphill task in that First Leg defeat at Torquay.
Yes, we lost 2-0, we didn’t play particularly well at all and we were probably quite lucky to come away losing just 2-0. That obviously set us up for the home game, the last game on the Astroturf.

It can’t have been a happy journey home all the way from the south coast?
It wasn’t, we were all disappointed, we had let ourselves down and we just didn’t perform on the day and that was the biggest thing. Not that we thought we didn’t have a chance, we knew that it would be hard at Deepdale but we more or less got together and decided to give it our best shot.

John Beck was famous for his unusual training methods, did he do anything different in the build up to that game?
Not really, we trained as normal, we didn’t have our own training facilities in those days, we did a lot of training at the barracks that week. We didn’t do anything different that set us up, we all knew what was at stake, not many of us had ever been to Wembley and when you look back you think that there wasn’t many years of Wembley left. We’d more or less dominated the season and we shouldn’t really have been in that situation of being in the Play-Offs and I think it was up to us to put it right.

We got an early goal but then they equalised which made your task doubly hard.
We knew that that would make it tougher, away goals counted after extra-time in those days so we all knew that a clean sheet was imperative to give us half a chance. To get one up quickly was great but to lose a goal, we all knew that it was going to be very difficult. I think they got a man sent off which gave us a boost. I don’t remember the time of the goals, I think I set one up and I remember Hicksy [Stuart Hicks] scoring the one in extra-time to make it 4-1. It’s the only game I have ever been in tears after the game, it was a very emotional day.

That sending-off is probably what tipped the game in PNE’s favour.
We more or less battered them second half and that gave us the buzz, the crowd sensed it as well and once we got the one goal we knew we had to get it back to 3-1 before the end because we all knew the rules on away goals. The priority was always to get the two goals and once their man got sent off it gave the game that extra edge. It was a very exciting game, although we won 4-1 we didn’t create a lot of chances during the game, but it was one to remember.

It was one for the fans to remember and they piled on the pitch at the end.
Everbody wanted a little memento of the plastic pitch and I believe that there a few gardens throughout Preston with bits of it stuck down. There’s a picture in the old players’ lounge of David Moyes and Andy Fensome being carried off the pitch, it was quite an occasion.

You scored in the final against Martin O’Neill’s Wycombe, what are your memories of the trip to Wembley?
There was a long build-up between the semi-final and the final, it was about 10 or 11 days, but we prepared as we normally did. The big news before the game was the fact that all the players thought Stuart Hicks was playing but Mr Beck decided that Jamie Squires was playing. It was a shock to all the players and it was a shock to Gary Peters, we had worked most of the set-pieces with Stuart during the week so it was a bit of a gamble. We took about 26,000 fans down there, it was a fantastic occasion.

That was one of many unsuccessful PNE Play-Off campaigns, do you think this will be lucky number seven?
The year after we got to the semi-finals again and we got beat by Bury, home and away, we didn’t play particularly well in any of the games. We had double misery from Play-Offs in my time, but we won the Championship after that and that is the best way to go up. Obviously I went to the Bolton game and on the day the best team won, all the quotes were that the Bolton fans went to win the game and the Preston fans went for the day out. Whether the players had that attitude it is difficult to guess, as it turned out Bolton have done well and have stayed up. It was a disappointing day, as was last year when North End probably didn’t do themselves justice against West Ham. In hindsight and you see what West Ham have done, they have not been outside the top ten all year, there’s not many teams do that, especially after going up through the Play-Offs.

Last Three Play-Off Games At Deepdale

15th May 2005
PNE 2-0 Derby
David Nugent opens the scoring before Richard Cresswell grabs a last gasp second to give Billy’s men a two goal cushion.

17th May 2001
PNE 2-1 Birmingham
An amazing night at Deepdale as Mark Rankine’s last minute goal takes the tie into extra-time and after Francis’ strop North End win the shoot-out.

16th May 1999
PNE 1-1 Gillingham
David Eyres puts the Lilywhites ahead just after the break but David Moyes watches in despair as Rob Taylor grabs a crucial equaliser for the Gills.

Footballers Drives: Marcus Stewart

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The life of a footballer on loan is one of lonely drives up and down the country from your current club to your adopted one. That’s what North End’s latest striker Marcus Stewart had had to contend with in the past few weeks as he has made his way north from Bristol on more than one occasion, so the comfort and reliability of his car is something that is close to his heart.

How many times did it take to pass your test?
I passed on my second time, it took me about 18 lessons. I don’t remember the name of the guy, it was just some bloke who worked for a company in Bristol.

What was the first car that you bought?
It was a Ford Escort Mark II. I asked my dad if he would buy me one, he said yes, he said I’ve got a certain amount of money and we ended up buying it. The next car I got was a Manta GTE.

A what?
A Manta GTE, it was gold. I don’t think you can buy them these days, that one got stolen. I was only a young professional, about 19, 20 years old.

How many cars have you owned since then?
About six or seven, not too many.

What’s the best car you have had?
A BMW Seven series. I should have never got rid of it, it was a brilliant drive, a reliable car, it wasn’t really hot on petrol and it was very comfortable. I would say it was also the most expensive car I have ever had.

What car are you driving at the moment?
A BMW Six Series. It’s very nice, a very good car, very comfortable but it’s not as big inside as I would like it to be, not like the Seven Series was, you learn by your mistakes.

I suppose what car you drive is important to you at the moment with all the traveling from Bristol back and forth.
Yes, the one I’m in at the moment is very hot on petrol so I’m looking for Nissan to give me a car.

Well everyone else has got one! What would your dream car be?
I think that the Bentley that the Chairman has got is very nice.

What would you need to do to get one of those?
(laughs) Just go into my bank account but I don’t want to get one at the moment. I didn’t want to say that but you asked me the question.

Who has had the best car at any of the clubs you have been at?
That would be an Aston Martin Vanquish that one of the players at Sunderland had.

Were you a boy racer?
I’m sensible now but I used to be a boy racer. I had the speakers in my car with loud music and the windows down. You go through that phase and now I have grown out of it.

What music do you listen to in your car nowadays?
All sorts, from R&B to classical, it depends what mood I am in but I have got the full range.

If you are driving with the missus who decides what is on the stereo?
The kids decide. We both like Radio One so that is normally on.

What is in your glove box?
Some Sunderland signed photos which I have had in there since last season. I had 50 given to me and I have still got 50, the CD on how to work the satellite navigation is also in there.

What’s worse, speed cameras or speed bumps?
Definitely speed cameras. They’ve not caught me out too much as I have one of those Road Angel things in my car so I tend to clock them.

Model: BMW 6 Series
Engine Size: 3.0
Top Speed: 155 mph
Acceleration (0-60 mph) 6.5 seconds
Price: £47,500

Club Legend – Eddie Gray, Leeds United

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Leeds United have a whole host of legendary former players to choose from, the list of players given to the matchday programme to interview was mightily impressive indeed. But we decided to go for a one-club man who played on the wing and later managed the club, Eddie Gray.

You made your debut as a 17-year-old on New Year’s Day 1966, what are your memories of the game?
I didn’t feel that nervous, I was reasonably confident in my ability. You feel a little bit nervous but no nerves that are going to stop me performing.

We won against Sheffield Wednesday; it was a good win for the club, a tough game. I managed to score which made it better It was just so that my younger brother Frank had come to stay with me for the weekend and a few years later I watched Frank score on his debut for Leeds.

Within two years you were collecting your first winners medals with the League Cup, Fairs Cup in 1968 and in 1969 you claimed the League Championship?
They were great experiences as a young player, they were the club’s first major trophies which was important because Don Revie was trying to build something at the football club. It started in the early 1960s when I arrived at the club and it was nice to see it come to fruition when the club became a powerful force in English football.

It was a great feeling to win the league, there was a lot of good teams around at that particular time and to win the league championships was a great experience. Obviously we had our disappointments along the way but all in all it was a successful time for the club.

That goal you scored against Burnley has been rated as one of the best in the club’s history; do the fans still remind you of that?
Yes they do, I scored another goal that day which gave me immense satisfaction from the point of view of how I executed it. But the goal that the fans talk about was something that I could do naturally.

You almost completed an unprecedented treble in 1970 but it turned out that you missed out on all three fronts.
It was more unfortunate than disappointing but you are better playing in games like that than not at all. That’s always the way I’ve looked at football anyway, you were better challenging and being in Cup Finals and challenging for league trophies and European trophies than not being involved at all. It is disappointing at the time but the status of the football club was getting stronger all the time, it was nice to bounce back and keep winning trophies, that was the most important thing.

I think there was 136,000 at Hampden for the European Cup semi against Celtic, it was a tremendous occasion, a great game of football between two top class sides. Celtic had won the European Cup in 1967 and they probably should have won it the year they beat us in the semis but Feyenoord beat them, but Feyenoord were on the up as well.

It was a memorable occasion but a huge disappointment to get beat, I used to follow Celtic as a boy, they were my club, I always used to look for their results and to play them in that semi-final was a great thrill.

When Don Revie left the club Leeds went into decline but you stuck with them through those years.
 The club were still hovering about the top positions in the league for a few years but nothing like the success that we used to have. The club never bounced back until Howard Wilkinson took control. I had a go at management when the club got relegated. I had a lot of decent young players but like all things you have got to be successful in football. Howard joined the club after Billy Bremner had left and he was successful, the club started to spend a little bit of money again. There was some top class footballers at the club, you only need to look at the midfield then with Strachan, Batty, McAllister and Speed, that was as good as any midfield that had played for a long time.


You also left a legacy of your own as your brought some fantastic young players through the youth set-up during your time there.
I brought some terrific young players through the football club It was just disappointing that in the circumstances the football club had to sell those players. If it wasn’t for having those players and being able to generate some money through them, the likes of Kewell, Smith, Woodgate, Robinson and even the younger ones like Milner and Lennon, they would have probably been in huge trouble, they were in a lot of trouble as it was but it would have been huge. It was nice to work with these players and it is nice to see them all going on and fulfilling the potential they showed.

Last Three Games With Leeds United At Deepdale
6th November 2004
PNE 2-4 Leeds
Cresswell scores twice for North End but it is Healy who has the last laugh as he returns to haunt his old club with a brace.

4th October 1966
PNE 1-1 Leeds
Bill Cranston grabs the goal for North End as the two sides are forced into a replay in this League Cup encounter.

3rd March 1964
PNE 2-0 Leeds
Goals from Wilson and Ashworth secure the win in front of almost 36,000 at Deepdale but Leeds go on to gain promotion as the Lilywhites finish third.