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Fan File: Cardiff City

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What is the club’s nickname? 
Bluebirds

What is the nickname other club’s give you? 
Baadiff and other sheep related jibes too rude to print in a football programme!

What songs do your fans sing?
“I’ll be there” – an old Welsh mining song and “Men of Harlech” which is generally hummed as the words are in Welsh!

How good/bad was last season?
We surpassed all expectations with the ridiculously talented Jason Koumas in the midfield and Cameron Jerome scoring plenty of goals 

What are your ambitions for the coming season?
To play more as a team and not depend on Koumas and Jerome. We are going to have to, as neither are at the club any longer.

What do you think the manager’s ambitions are for the coming season?
I think Dave Jones genuinely thinks we can push for promotion. Bless.

What do you think the board’s ambitions are for the coming season?
In public they talk of the playoffs but I think their true ambitions lie with the financial stability of the club, including the new retail park and football stadium project.

What position do you think your team will finish this season?
10th.

What position do you think Preston North End will finish this season?
11th!

Which team do you want to be beat the most this season and why?
Leeds United, we have some sort of curse over the Elland Road club since we knocked them out of the FA Cup in 2002 when they were top of the Premier League (they haven’t beaten us since). It would be great to keep that run going. 

If you could sign one player from your club’s past who would it be and why?
John Toshack. According to many (older Bluebird fans than me) selling him to Liverpool was the reason we didn’t get promoted to the top flight in the 70s. We’ve never even been close to returning there since he left. He has unfinished business at Cardiff!

If you could sign one player from any other club in the Championship who would it be and why?
Probably another goalscorer as past Michael Chopra I can’t really see where our goals are coming from. Forssell, and Nugent are excellent players but I’d probably go for one from two of our ex-players Robert Earnshaw or Jason Koumas. I’d probably plump for little Robbie Earnshaw though as he is almost guaranteed to get you 20 goals and I am pretty certain he will end as top scorer in this division.

If you could appoint a former manager to take charge at your club who would you choose and why?
I think Dave Jones is the right man for the job and I can’t think of a Cardiff City manager who has done as well as him in the past considering the resources he has at his disposal.

If you had to swap your manager with any other club in this division who would you go for?
Davies at Derby County strikes me as the only other outstanding manager in the division (apart from Dave Jones!) but I’m sure Preston fans already know that. However there are a couple of other up-and-coming managers, Phil Parkinson and Ian Holloway are the two others I quite like. Holloway more for his quips than his managerial ability.

If they made a Hollywood blockbuster about your club which actors would play the lead roles?
Steve Martin (no good films in ages but people still give him chances) in the lead role of ‘Publicity’ Pete Risdale and Danny DeVito (much more popular in the 80s) as the angry property developer Sam Hammam. I suspect this film is more likely to be a slapstick comedy than a serious thought provoking one.

What music does your team run out to at home?
U2’s Elevation

What music would be more appropriate for your team to run out to?
Living on a Prayer, Bon Jovi

What/who is your club mascot, is it any good?
It was Bartley the Bluebird who was last seen having a fight at Gigg Lane with Bury’s mascot. I don’t think Sam Hammam likes mascots so Bartley is rarely seen at Ninian Park nowadays. Shame.

Can you describe what is going on with your club badge?
The badge is the St. David’s cross with a bluebird on top that was brought in as part of Sam Hammam’s re-branding of the club when he took over. Personally I prefer the old style badge with a simple bluebird but you can’t have everything I suppose!

What is the greatest moment in your club’s history?
Our FA Cup Final victory over Arsenal in 1927 takes some beating, only our 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the Cup Winners Cup comes close.

What is the worst moment in your club’s history?
The numerous times we’ve almost gone out of business. On a personal note I remember us losing 2-7 at home to Cambridge United and losing to Barry Town in the Welsh Cup Final. Both were pretty bad.

Which would you prefer, reaching the FA Cup Final or the Play-Off Final?
FA Cup Final. Losing in the playoffs is an awful experience, I don’t think losing the FA Cup final would be much of a heartbreaker. Winning either would be amazing but I think in 20 years time an FA Cup win by Cardiff City would be more memorable than a season or two in the Premier League.

How many fans do you think you will bring to Deepdale?
Probably about 1000. Considering our normal home gates we have a large away following. Does this say something about Ninian Park?

What’s the greatest rumour you have ever heard about your club?
That we were going to set up our own Formula One team and have the cars emblazoned with the Bluebirds logo and Cardiff colours. It was a story fabricated on an internet message board that somehow made the local press.

What is your prediction for today’s game?
A hard fought score draw, some good football and some good beer.

Graham Alexander: In The Playground

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What team did you support as a lad?
Coventry City because they were my local team but I also supported Rangers as well.

What players do you remember from that time?
The main one that I remember is Davie Cooper, I remember listening to my dad talking about him, he was a top player. But I had a season ticket at Coventry from about the age of nine and the best player I saw for them was David Speedie, he was class.

What era was that?
It was the year just after we had won the FA Cup, he joined us in the summer of ’87 and he played for us for a couple of years before he went to Liverpool but he was the best player I had seen playing for Coventry at the time.

Did you have the kit?
I did, I had some terrible kits in the 70s and early 80s. I had a lot of Coventry kits and a couple of Scotland kits.

What posters did you have on your bedroom wall?
I had absolutely everyone’s. I used to buy Match and Shoot magazine and every player or team poster I used to pull out and put them on my bedroom wall. Every single inch of my wall was covered with stickers or posters of different players.

Which footballer did you want to be when you played in the playground?
Even though I supported Coventry, Liverpool were the big team in those days and Kenny Dalglish was always the quality player so I was always Dalglish or Souness.

What is your first memory of watching football?
It would have been going to watch Coventry, there were some great games. They always seemed to be involved in high pressure games at the end of the season, trying to stay up. I probably saw my first game at the age of seven in the late 70s. I can’t remember the first game but I remember sitting there with my dad and his mates and I’ve loved it ever since.

What are your first memories of the World Cup?
The main ones I remember are the ’82 and ’86 World Cups, they were great World Cups and the ’82 was the first World Cup I can remember. I can’t really remember the ’78 World Cup really, I was only seven. The ’82 one I can remember all the goals that were scored, the Brazil team were an unbelievable team.

Didn’t they hammer Scotland in that one?
They did! David Narey scored the first goal and I remember watching it with my dad thinking we were on for a famous victory and then crying soon afterwards when they’d hammered us 4-1. It was a brilliant game, I remember Zico and Eder scoring, there were some unbelievable goals, I remember Eder chipping Alan Rough and ever since then I remember Brazil for being an amazing team.

What team did you play for as a boy?
I only played for one club team, Coventry Sporting. I went for a trial there with my mate when we were nine and we were quite successful in the early years and we didn’t really change our players, we had the same eight or nine players from the age of nine to sixteen and it was just a fantastic team to play for. I had offers to play for other clubs when I was 15/16 but I wanted to stay and play for the club I’d played for since I was nine, I loved playing for them.

Do you remember your first pair of boots?
Yes, they were probably some second-hand ones from the school lost property box for 50 pence. We weren’t well off back then and for the first few years that’s what we had to do. My first proper boots were a pair of Patrick Chile’s and I got them when I was about 13/14 but that makes you appreciate what you have got in later life.

Dream Team: Jim Nicholson

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This week 27 year-old Jim Nicholson sends us his dream team.

1.  Alan Kelly Snr – Goalkeeper
I am sure my father has rose coloured glasses but he made Allen Kelly Snr out to be unbeatable and for that reason Alan Kelly Snr is my choice at number one.

2.  Graham Alexander – Right Back
A reliable and robust defender and current PNE captain, who I suspect is
more happy going forward and using that great right foot to spread the play
and terrorize opposition goalkeepers.

3.  Ryan Kidd – Left Back
Although injury robbed PNE of one of its best ever defenders i can state
from experience, (having played against Mr Kidd in the last Legends match)
he would of made a great PNE captain.

4.  Chris Lucketti – Centre Back
Chris would have to be described as one of the greatest bargains in the last
20 years.  Strong reliable and robust, Chris became a crowd favorite very
quickly and was given the PNE captaincy. 

5.  Mark Lawrenson  – Centre Back
Another Preston lad born and bred who went on to bigger things away from
Deepdale.

6.  Sean Gregan – Centre Midfield
I would compare Sean to Roy Keane for Man Utd, his job was to destroy opposition attacks and there was nobody better before or since at doing that.

7.  Sir Tom Finney OBE – Right Wing
A man who showed such loyalty not only to the Club but the town and now city of Preston, truly its most favourite son.  Sir Tom Finney, an example to the modern professional in not only how to play the game on the field but how to conduct yourself off it.

8.  Mark Rankine – Centre Midfield
In my opinion the only dodgy choice in my selection.  Ranks was a donkey but
he was our donkey, and if he ever lacked any ability he made up for it with
effort.

9.  David Nugent – Centre Forward
Another bargain coming from some astute work in the transfer market, Nuge is
of such a talent the likes of which we have not seen in years at Deepdale. 


10.  Alex Dawson – Centre Forward
My father claims that whist at the club he saw Alex Dawson, who he
claims was only 5 foot, leap above the cross-bar to head in a goal, and
that he cleared the Town End taking a penalty.

11.  David Eyres – Left Wing
My best memory of David Eyres is being sat in the Sir Tom Finney Stand directly in line with the goal at the Town End when he struck a free kick against Blackpool which sailed into the top corner of the goal.

Manager – David Moyes
This is the manager which heralded the new dawn in our history, whilst the
two Johns, (McGrath and Beck) started the revolution it was David Moyes
who took us to glory and being 45 minutes from top flight football against
Bolton for the first time since the 60s.  If anyone was in doubt about David
Moyes managerial credentials you only have to look and see how well Everton
have done since he went there.

Best Kit
The current kit is one I really like the only other which comes close is the
Wembley kit for the 1994 Play-Off final against Wycombe which was funky and imaginative.

Greatest Game
Birmingham City Playoff semi final
Birmingham were convinced they had us beat with reports in the media after
the game that they had booked their hotel rooms in Cardiff. I heard a rumour
that they had champagne in there dressing room, however a magnificent
Preston display, a disgruntled Birmingham manager and a wonderful set of
penalties saw us through to the final which we lost to a better Bolton
Wanderers but the memory of that night and indeed the video which I watch
every now and again always bring the broadest grin to my face.

Major Signing Extends Deal

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Haines Watts Chartered Accountants have extended their sponsorship of Preston North End’s Great Room by a further 12 months.

Haines Watts are a national group of accountants, comprising of over 40 offices nationwide, and are one of the top 15 firms of Chartered Accountants in the UK.

Director Paul Newsham already has strong links with Preston North End as he is the Club’s current Finance Director and he is delighted that his links with PNE will continue through this deal.

”It’s been a perfect partnership,” said Paul.

”We undertook the sponsorship of Preston North End’s fine matchday dining suite, The Great Room, at the start of last season and we enjoyed a great relationship with the Club.

”We are delighted to extend this deal for the coming season and look forward to continued success on and off the field.”

Preston North End’s Great Room offers unsurpassed matchday dining at affordable prices. The Club has several deals and packages for what has proven to be a fantastic day out, Championship football and Championship entertainement.

For more details on how to enjoy the Club’s fantastic hospitality give our commercial team a call on 01772 693310/11.

Quotes: Graham Alexander 1st August 2006

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I think the Play-Off defeat at the end of last season hurt more than ever to be honest. It is bad to go out at any stage, the semi or the final, but the way we played throughout the season and the position that we finished in, plus going into the second-leg with a decent result from the first, we should have at least got to the final. We would have been playing Watford and no disrespect but I thought we were a better team than them but they finished in the higher positions and fair play to them they probably deserved to go up during the season anyway.

If I’m being honest Billy Davies’ departure didn’t surprise me, I had a funny feeling that something might happen during the summer so when all the speculation started it didn’t really come as a surprise. When he eventually left I thought it was inevitable to be honest, but that gave the Club plenty of time to get it sorted and get a new manager in. The staff upheavals during pre-season weren’t very helpful but now we have got the staff in and hopefully we can start the season all together.

The new gaffer has come in and he has been brilliant. He is doing it his own way, the training is a little bit different to when Billy was here and a lot of things are a little bit different but the discipline is still there and he wants us to be an organised team. He’s got his own staff in now which is good for him, we are eventually getting to know each other, obviously the first couple of weeks are a little bit different with new faces around the place and a couple of new players but as pre-season has gone on we have started to understand what the gaffer wants on the pitch and I think you could tell in the performances towards the end of pre-season, we played quite well.

It’s my first pre-season as captain of the club and this year that has brought a little bit of extra responsibility with the new manager coming in. There are little things where Paul might want to know what went on last season in terms of discipline and club fines, we’ve been talking about things like that and trying to get it all set up. I’m a link between the manager and the players so for the tiny details like what to wear for games the gaffer has come and asked me. It’s not so much responsibility but just finding out from the more experienced players.

We’ve brought extra cover in on the left with Danny Pugh’s arrival and I’m happy about that, I played at left-back a lot last season because at one point we only had two full-backs with myself and Tyrone Mears. The previous manager thought that I would be the best one at left-back because I can use my left foot a little bit and that’s why I played there, I ended up playing there for the rest of the season. I’m a right-back first and foremost, I’ve played most of my football at right-back, I feel that I can help the team more at right-back but I’m sure if the occasion comes up for me to play at left-back then I’ll be more than happy to do it but it is good that the manager has brought in extra strength on the left hand side.

The likes of Danny Pugh, Lewis Neal, Simon Whaley and Chris Sedgwick have seen a lot of the ball in pre-season and I think that might come down to the fact that the gaffer was a wide man himself, he was a player that wanted to get on the ball and he wants his wide men to do the same here. They won’t have a better teacher of wing-play than the manager we have got now, he wants us to get plenty of width and plenty of crosses in and plenty of shots. He wants to change us a little bit, the whole team had a great defensive record last season but we didn’t score enough goals, I think he wants to put that right whilst at the same time keeping the defensive qualities that we have. There has been a lot of emphasis in pre-season about attacking play, we’ve seen the wide men, the midfielders, the forwards and even the full-backs getting up, crossing from all areas and taking your chance from shots and crosses.

We’ve benefited from that already, I’m not renowned for my heading but I did score one against Bury last week, I had just give a goal away and I was probably making up for that. I took a run forward, lost my marker, attacked the near post, like a good centre-forward should and I flicked it into the net. My first ever professional goal was a header, back in the day, when I was at Scunthorpe but I’ve only scored one since then in my whole career.

We’ve had some decent pre-season games, especially the Everton and the Man Utd games, it gives you a little taste of the season but nothing can compare to the start of the season and the hurly burly of Championship football, we will get that today against Sheffield Wednesday, they’ll bring a big support, hopefully it will be an exciting game and fingers crossed we can get off on a good foot. We’ve recently been slow starters but we’re looking to change that this season and get off to a flyer.

We already had Adam and Brett out, two quality players, they’ll be looking to get back soon. Unfortunately this season has started with Callum needing an operation and Brian O’Neil will have to rest for a while, we also had the big blow last Saturday with Youl picking up the injury, it’s a nightmare because he has been flying in pre-season and he was superb against United. Youl would have been a big player for us this season but I’m sure he is going to come back stronger.

Crazy Prices: Queens Park Rangers

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North End start this afternoon’s fixture as 8/11 favourites with the Club’s official bookmaker pnebetting.co.uk (08000 322 365) and that’s probably a fair price bearing in mind the start to the season the two clubs have had.

After grabbing their first three pointer of the season at Molineux last weekend I expect to see Paul Simpson’s men firing on all cylinders and I’m tipping a comprehensive 3-0 victory at 12/1.

If you are looking for a goalscorer it’s quite hard to look beyond David Nugent, even at 9/2 but if you are looking for a bigger price then why not take a gamble on Sean St. Ledger who has looked quite dangerous at set pieces.

Specials
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year award has attracted plenty of punting interest in the past month or so. David Walliams was heavily supported following his cross-channel charity swim but is now drifting if you excuse the pun, the new hot favourite is England’s new spin king Monty Panesar at 3/1.

Birmingham 10/11 Draw 9/4 Crystal Palace 13/5 – Verdict Draw
The Championship’s early pacesetters meet at St Andrews this afternoon with Clinton Morrison keen to make his former employers pay. It’ll be a tight one and I’m backing the draw.

Burnley 6/5 Draw 11/5 Wolves 2/1 – Verdict Wolves
Steve Cotterill’s men have started well but Wolves will be smarting following their defeat to PNE and whilst I expect this to be a fiery game I’m backing Mick McCarthy’s men.
Ipswich 5/6 Draw 11/4 Hull 3/1 – Verdict Draw
Two sides rooted to the bottom of the Championship table meet at Portman Road, both in search of their first points. Hull looked unlucky not to take at least a point off of Derby and I reckon they can steal one this week.

West Brom 4/9 Draw 3/1 Colchester 5/1 – Verdict West Brom
Colchester have the hardest task of the weekend according to the bookies at 5/1 for a win. I have to say I agree with them though and Bryan Robson’s men should win comfortably.

In The Playground – Patrick Agyemang

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What team did you support as a boy?
Liverpool

Is that the team that you always wanted to play for?
No, not really, I just supported them when I was younger.

So what team did you grow up wanting to play for then?
Probably Arsenal, they had a lot of good players and they were a good London club but as a boy I supported Liverpool because I liked the way they used to play. It was the team that had John Barnes, Ian Rush, McManaman, it was a good team.

What position did you play as a kid?
Striker.

Did you score a lot of goals?
Yes.

What was the team that you played for?
Grasshoppers were my Sunday league team.

Did you have trials at many professional clubs?
Charlton wanted me to do schoolboy trials there but then Wimbledon came in for me and that was it.

Did you grow up with any other famous footballers?
John Terry, Bobby Zamora, Kemi Izzet, Paul Konchesky, Fitz Hall, there was loads, I can’t remember all of them.

What position did you want to be as a youngster?
I’ve always wanted to be a striker.

Which footballers posters did you have on your bedroom wall?
None.

Who was your favourite player?
My favourite player when I was growing up was Ronaldo, he was one of my favourite players but I also liked the older players like Pele and Maradona.

What are you first memories of football?
Watching the World Cup as a kid, I can’t remember which one it was, probably the 1990 World Cup.

What was the first game you went to as a spectator?
It was a Tottenham game, I can’t remember who they were playing but it was at White Hart Lane when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I went with one of my friends.

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

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.

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