Category: Preston North End Editorial

Almost a decade spent managing the editorial out in both print and digital for a top performing Championship Football Club and one of the most historic names in the game.

Big Interview: Carlo Nash 31st March 2005

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If Preston North End are looking for a good luck omen as the season approaches it’s exciting climax they may have just got one in the form of goalkeeper Carlo Nash.

The 6’5 strapping goalkeeper was a deadline day signing from Middlesbrough 12 days ago, he’s the final piece in Preston North End’s jigsaw for the 2004/05 campaign and after tasting promotion to the Premiership with both Manchester City and Crystal Palace in recent years he is a goalkeeper aiming for a hat-trick with North End this year.

Nash was a member of Kevin Keegan’s squad which took this division by storm three seasons ago but more importantly he has got to the Premiership via the play-offs in his first ever season in league football with Crystal Palace.

It is the experience of that Wembley play-off final win that PNE boss Billy Davies will be hoping that Nash can bring to the fore.

“Hopefully it will pay dividends,” Nash told the PNE matchday programme this week.

“I’ve been in this situation twice before once I got automatic promotion with City and previous to that I was with Crystal Palace when they won promotion via the play offs so hopefully those experiences will stand me in good stead for the end of the season.

“It’s important that I use my experience to help others around me. Because I’ve been there before I know what will be going through their minds and really it’s up to me and the other senior players to calm a few nerves if there are any and hopefully everyone will be fine.”

Nash has yet to have a full week’s training with his new team-mates, he only joined in properly on Tuesday of last week after the extended Easter weekend break and his first opportunity to meet his new colleagues was at a session of ten-pin bowling.

“It’s not a bad start to a new club really, we went bowling on Thursday and then we were off till Tuesday, it has been quite an easy start really but we have been working really hard since I came back in.

“I’m back to earth now we returned to training on the Tuesday and then we had the rest of the week building up to the Gillingham game.

“The training has been brilliant, much the same as what I am used to, Pete Williams takes the goalkeepers and we do a lot of work with him before and then we do some work with the gaffer and the rest of the lads.

“It takes a bit of getting used to because I don’t really know how each player performs and it is just up to me to manage that and getting them playing as I want them to play in front of me. Every keeper is different and it will take a little bit of time to get used to but hopefully we will get it right quickly.

“The lads have all been quite polite to me at the moment, I’m still waiting for a bit of a backlash but they are a good set of lads and they have made me feel right at home.”

Once Nash does get into the swing of things he won’t have too much of a honeymoon period as the North End squad are in the middle of a intense period of high-pressure games to reach the play-offs.

It’s a situation Carlo is more than aware of.

“Every game is a big game from now until the end of the season, we have just got to aim as high as we can and hopefully if we can get into the play-offs at the end of the season then who knows from there.

“We are just taking each game as it comes, we are trying to get the results and if we do that then we will have done well.

“Every game is going to be a tough game, mentally as well as physically but we have just got to be strong and get the results.”

For Nash the move to Deepdale is almost something of a return to his home roots, as a Bolton born lad the big keeper started his career at non-league Clitheroe.

“It’s great to be here. I was brought up in Bolton and spent a lot of my teenage years there. I played in Bolton town team and played at Deepdale when there was a plastic pitch so I do know the area quite well and it’s a great chance for me to come back here – back to my roots if you like.

“I started my career playing for Clitheroe and working as a Sales Manager selling office equipment in Blackburn and then the Chairman rang me up a week after the FA Vase final and just said Crystal Palace have offered £35,000 for you, do you want to speak to them? So I thought that if I don’t go down now I’ll never know, so I went down and spoke to Harry Bassett and the rest is history.”

Whilst Nash is very much a part of Palace’s and Manchester City’s recent history it is the thought of completing a promotion hat-trick which is exciting North End’s latest recruit.

“I was in the same situation in the play-offs when I just started at Crystal Palace so I know what it’s all about and it’s a great position to be in. I’ve been keeping my eye on the Championship league and I know they’ve been doing well and I knew they had a great chance of going up. The play-offs are a bit of a lottery so obviously the first aim is to get in there and we’ll take it from there and hopefully we can push on and get promotion.

“Preston were always been there or there-abouts even when I was at Stockport and they were always a great side to play against. I know what great sides they’ve had over the past years so I think the squad that we’ve got at the moment and obviously with Billy at the helm we’ve got a great future ahead of us. We need to take each step as it comes and hopefully we’ll get promotion this year.”

Training and playing with Preston North End will be like a breath of fresh air to the No.33, he has had to endure a couple of seasons as understudy to one of the Premiership’s most consistent stoppers in Middlesbrough’s Mark Schwarzer.

“It has been very frustrating for me because obviously I want to play, I don’t want to sit on the bench every week. Obviously at Middlesbrough when I signed I knew it’d be tough for me because Mark Schwarzer is a great keeper and unless he got injured I wouldn’t really be getting a shout. I don’t look back and regret that move and see it as an integral part of my career as the training and facilities there enabled me to push forward and get better as a player as well as in the fitness department. Hopefully I can put into practice what I’ve learnt over the last two years.

“Billy Davies has done well this season to get Preston where they are and when he rang me up he made me feel at ease. He obviously he wanted me to sign here and thought I’d be great asset to the team so he more or less convinced me – if I needed any convincing to sign.

“There was a few more clubs interested but not at this present time and the factor for me was that Preston really wanted to sign me and I saw it as an opportunity to play in the Championship and with the position they’re in hopefully get promotion.”

Big Interview: Guy Butters 31st March 2005

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“It is just a shame that we haven’t done so well of late,” Butters told the North End Matchday programme.

“If we had picked up a few results in them games, I know it sounds strange but you are not that far off the play-offs if you win a few games. We just want to survive really, it’s just about staying in this division but with about eleven games to go it was looking quite healthy. But we have lost four on the trot and it is looking a bit tighter down there.

“I was at Brighton when they went down before but I wasn’t playing at the time. It has been an eventful five years for the club, they have had promotions or relegations every year so it is pretty apt that we are in a relegation struggle.”

The fact that Butters and his team-mates have been dragged into the relegation dogfight probably owes more to the competitiveness of the Championship. Even with just seven games to go it’s almost as if every club has something to play for.

“We have been looking at all the teams and everyone has got to play each other, we have still to go to Rotherham, we have got to play Leicester and Coventry so we know that we have got to play a few of the teams down there, it is in our hands really. As long as we play the way that we know we can fingers crossed it will be alright.

“When it gets down to this period of the season then it is all about winning games, at the start of the season you want to win every game. Sometimes you get managers who more bothered about how well you play whereas now we would take playing absolutely awful as long as we win.”

One of those teams at the bottom who will be battling to stay up along with Brighton is Butters’ former club Gillingham. The centre-half spent just under six years at Priestfield and he will be hoping that he can spark up some of the Gillingham curse tonight.

“I still talk to a few of the Gillingham lads, there was a stage a few games ago where we had a better goal difference then them by about 10, but they have overtaken us on that one so we have got to make sure that we start picking things up.

“We beat Preston in the play-offs one year and we used to do quite well up there. I think I remember only being beaten once when I was at Gillingham. You always knew that it was a difficult place to go and if you got something out of the game you would be pretty relieved, before the game you would take a point if it was offered you.  We used to have some good battles when Sean Gregan was there and all them lot.”

With the Brighton team making the long journey up for a night match, Butters knows that a good result is important so that they don’t have to endure what would be a very quiet and long journey home should things go wrong. He’s hoping for a repeat of what happened at the Withdean earlier this season.

“You want to get the result because if you lose it is a long journey home, but it will be two away games on the trot and hopefully we can get a few points.

“I remember the game earlier in the season, we played pretty well that day. We knew that you were a good side yourselves and we seem to raise ourselves against the better sides, unfortunately we don’t seem to be able to do it against the lesser sides. It was 1-0 but we know that since then Preston have gone on to better things and that they are looking to get into the play-offs so it is going to be a difficult game.”

Those big results have come at all sorts of places and he has even managed to notch a couple of important goals at Upton Park and Elland Road, the one against the Hammers proved to be the winner and upset a few members of his family.

“My dad is a West Ham fan so he weren’t too happy. We train at a University and I got talking to a few West Ham fans throughout the season, they kept saying that they were going to go and give me some stick, so to actually score, I saw one of them when I was coming off the pitch and it was quite funny.

“It was a good result but we have had a few like that this year, we beat Leicester away and done quite well and we have beaten Sheffield United away so we know that on our day we are capable of giving anyone a good game really.”

The 35-year-old will be hoping that his team-mates have one last good away performance in them to take all three points tonight!

Big Interview: Carl Cort 7th March 2005

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Amid all the speculation and rumours surrounding Glenn Hoddle’s managerial future at Wolverhampton Wanderers, one player has stepped forward and offered the former England boss plenty of support at the same time as doing the business on the field.

Wolves paid £2,000,000 to prise Carl Cort away from Newcastle United following a successful loan spell at Molineux and after the striker scored a brace of goals in last weekend’s impressive 4-1 victory over Crewe he was full of praise for his gaffer.

“The manager has come in and introduced new ideas and his coaching skills are very high,” said Cort. “He knows a lot about the game.

“I just think at the moment, in terms of the fans and maybe the players as well, he has signed a contract until the end of the season and you don’t really know what is going to happen.

“I think that is a shame because you can’t really build.

“It has nothing to do with me – I’m just here to play football – it is down to the board. They are 100 per cent sure what they are doing and we’ll leave that to them.”

Following last weekend’s eye-catching display at Gresty Road the former Wimbledon man is still hopeful of a place in the play-offs, the win over Dario Gradi’s men put them eight points off the play-off places.

“You have to have some sort of target and ours is still to get in the play-offs, otherwise you end up just drifting through the season and going through the motions,” he added.

“We have to have that in mind to keep the motivation and the confidence there.

“It is one of those situations where we maybe need a couple of good wins to lift the club.”

Things have definitely changed at Molineux since Hoddle took over the reigns from Dave Jones at the start of December. Pessimists amongst the Wolverhampton faithful would say that the team who were plying their trade in the Premiership last season are not winning enough games, 10 draws from the last 16 games means that the team have only won four games, but then they have only lost twice.

“The boss is very technical and very experienced, with a good knowledge of the game and we’ve only lost once in the League since he’s been here so it’s not gone too badly.

“He’s only here initially for six months so certain things he’s had to rush in a sense. We have played a lot of different formations since he’s been here and done things which are new for some players  – which could have had an effect on the way we played.

“We’d all like the gaffer to sign a longer deal because he’s done well for us. The boys are enjoying it because he has brought something new to us and we look a lot more organised and the confidence and motivation is still there.”

It is sure to be an interesting atmosphere at the Wolverhampton Wanderers training complex, especially following reports that appeared in several national newspapers last weekend, with Paul Ince supposedly being lined up as the successor to Glenn Hoddle for the Molineux hotseat.

Despite the stories it is business as usual as far as Cort is concerned: “There’s bit a bit of banter flying around about the Incey report but not too much has been said because at the end of the day it’s just paper talk.

“But whatever happens our job is just to play football. We’ve got to stay confident that we can maybe make the play-offs because the season is coming to a close and we don’t want to be drifting our way through from now until the end with nothing to play for.

“We’ve got to keep that as an incentive. It’s going to be a tall order but we just have to go out and try and win every game.”

Cort’s Career

Club From To Fee League FA Cup League cup Other
Wolves 25-01-2004 £ 2000000 41 (5) 17 2 (0) 1 1 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Newcastle 05-07-2000 25-01-2004 £ 7000000 19 (3) 7 2 (0) 0 3 (0) 1 0 (1) 0
Lincoln 03-02-1997 01-03-1997 Loan 5 (1) 1 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0 0 (0) 0
Milton Keynes 07-06-1996 05-07-2000 Trainee 54 (19) 16 6 (4) 2 8 (2) 7 0 (0) 0
Totals £ 9000000 119 (28) 41 10 (4) 3 12 (2) 8 0 (1) 0

Flashback: Wolves 1st March 2005

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Preston North End have had some crucial and interesting meetings with Wolves down the years not surprising for two of the founder members of the football league.

The first big occasion between the two sides came at the Oval in March 1889, the Lilywhites had already completed the inaugural Football League season unbeaten as Champions and they arrived in London for the FA Cup Final hoping to complete the double.

North End had already defeated Birmingham and West Brom in the previous two rounds of the cup and they were hoping to complete the hat-trick over their Midlands rivals.

The Invincibles were born that afternoon at Surrey County Cricket Club when goals from Ross, Dewhurst and Thomson ensured a 3-0 win and also ensured that PNE would go throughout the whole competition without conceding a goal.

One of the more interesting battles between the two sides came in the 1926/27 season when the two sides clashed for a Second Division clash at Molineux. Not for the first or last time at Wolves, North End were down to 10 men in the first half, but nobody was sent off. In bizarre circumstances David Morris was forced out of action as early as the third minute when the laced part of the ball hit him in the eye and caused a blood clot which impaired his vision. PNE still had their sights set on victory though, a goal from Tommy Roberts and an o.g. from Wolves’ Shaw ensured a 2-1 win.

Two decades later and there would definitely be no celebrations for North End at Molineux. 54,425 fans crammed into the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers, not that the game had any real significance for Stan Cullis’ side, other than the fact that Wolves had just been to Wembley to win the FA Cup! The Lilywhites on the other hand were battling to avoid the drop and would have to do so without the injured Tom Finney.

The carnival atmosphere obviously allowed the Wolves players to relax a little and it wasn’t long before Mullen fired home their first goal of the afternoon after just 17 minutes.

North End’s Jimmy Gooch was performing all sorts of heroics in goal but the keeper could do little to stop Hancocks doubling the lead midway through the first-half hitting a 25-yard thunderbolt that scorched through the goalkeeper’s hands.

Bobby Langton grabbed a late consolation effort three minutes from the end when he fired home a penalty but it was too little too late for PNE, as was North End’s 2-0 home win over Liverpool one week later as results elsewhere contrived to send the Lilywhites down to the Second Division.

If Wolves victory inflicted pain on North End in sending them down, four years later they would inflict further damage but this time on North End’s quest to win the Football League Championship in the 1952/53 campaign.

It was a three way battle for the Championship, Stan Cullis’ Wolves, Tom Whittaker’s Arsenal and Preston’s Scot Symon all were in the mix as managers of their respective clubs.

And with just five games left of the season in what many considered to be the final eliminator Wolves would travel to Deepdale for an all important clash. Expectation levels were high amongst 35,788 North End fans that went through the turnstiles, the Lilywhites had already defeated Wolves 5-2 in an FA Cup tie earlier in the season and Tom Finney was back in the side after a five game absence.

But the efforts of the Preston Plumber were not to be enough as despite a Jimmy Baxter goal for PNE, the two sides could only manage a 1-1 draw. North End would defeat Arsenal at Deepdale in the penultimate game of the season but once again it was not enough to rescue the title as the Gunners claimed the Championship on goal difference!

North End would enjoy some titanic contests with Wolves throughout the 1950s and five years after Cullis’ side had denied Preston the Championship, they did it again and this time the Midlands club were the beneficiaries.

The Lilywhites and the Wanderers were both gunning for the League title in the 1957/58 season and with just three games to go of the campaign Harry Catterick took his Preston side to Molineux knowing that the winners would probably finish top of the table.

Preston had only been beaten once in the league since the turn of the year on a run of form that included an 8-0 thrashing of Birmingham City. Tom Finney scored twice against the Blues but he would be unavailable for the title decider due to international commitments.

Finney scored 26 goals that season, imagine Arsenal playing a title decider against Manchester United without the services of Thierry Henry!

North End also had Tommy Docherty missing through international duty but they soldiered on regardless.

It was not to be Preston’s day or year for that matter, the home side took advantage of some indecision in the North End defence in the 38th minute when Deeley from the Wanderers picked up on a lucky ricochet to slam the ball into an empty net.

PNE battled back in the second half and Hatsell almost levelled matters when his flick header brought a good save out of Wolves keeper Finlayson. Farrell drove inches wide and Hatsell again came close with a header.

But it was all in vain and Wolves put the Championship of Preston’s reach in the dying minutes when Milne sliced into his own net trying to clear a Broadbent chip.

Wolverhampton’s win would be the last time that the team in gold and black would finish as the top team in England and the 1957/58 season would also represent the last time that the Lilywhites would ever really be considered as challengers for English football’s ultimate title.

Flashback: Burnley 18th February 2005

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Today’s game between Preston North End and Burnley could be regarded as the oldest derby in the Football League. That’s because on the opening day of the first ever season of the oldest league in the world the Lilywhites tackled the Clarets at Deepdale. September 8th 1888 was the date, 5-2 was the scoreline in North End’s favour.

It was a game that almost never happened due to the Burnley side arriving late to the ground, maybe there was traffic jams on the M65, but whatever happened it meant that the game did not kick-off until 3.50pm in the afternoon, by which time the rest of the Football League had already completed one half of football.

Six thousand patient fans awaited Burnley’s arrival and even though the Clarets were perhaps the favourites for the game, having won the previous 15 encounters, it was a game that was keenly anticipated.

Two minutes in and Fred Dewhurst etched his name into the history books of North End by becoming the club’s first ever league goalscorer. One minute later Jack Gordon made it 2-0 for Preston and it looked like a rout was on the cards. PNE put the visitors under intense pressure for the opening 15 minutes of the game and they were fortunate not to go further behind with Sandy Robertson and Dewhurst again going close. The Clarets finally clawed their way back into the game in 21 minutes when Gallacher scored a tap-in after good work from Keenan.

North End had a goal ruled out just before the break but in the second half Preston’s Jimmy Ross aka ‘Little Demon’ showed his class to hit two quickfire goals to make it 4-1. The more the game went on the more the Burnley defence became exposed and Fred Dewhurst completed his brace of goals to make it 5-1. A late goal for Burnley from Poland was little compensation as Major William Suddell’s team won the first of what would be a 27 game unbeaten run and hence the Invincibles were born.

It was a different story entirely 25 years later, PNE had not won any of their first nine fixtures of the 1913-14 campaign and confidence was at a low following promotion from the Second Division the year before.

Things looked to have gone from bad to worse when Hodgson put Burnley ahead with only two minutes on the clock, this despite PNE’s England international Joe McCall’s best efforts to stop the ball from crossing the line.

But McCall didn’t have legendary status for nothing and in front of 28,000 eager fans he turned the game on its head with same great craftsmanship. On 35 minutes he picked up the ball in the centre of the park and set off on a surging run right at the heart of the Burnley defence before delivering a ball towards Toward, the Preston striker turned and shot in one movement to level matters.

Still the game looked to be heading for a draw and with it PNE’s hopes of a first win of the season looked to have been dashed. But McCall was having none of it, with just seven minutes left the centre-half played a wonderful ball into the box and Barlow slotted home to make the final score 2-1 to Preston North End.

Sadly it would prove to be a false dawn for PNE and they would return to the Second Division after finishing second bottom of the table.

Twenty years later in the 1933/34 season both teams were languishing in the Second Division after some lean years in North Lancashire. But an early season double over the Clarets would lead to North End being promoted. In fact PNE would play Burnley twice and Blackpool once in the opening four fixtures of the season.

The first game against Burnley was at Deepdale, goals from future PNE boss Jimmy Milne, David Galloway and George Stephenson helped the Lilywhites to a 3-2 win. Then six days later Preston travelled to Turf Moor and inflicted a painful 4-1 defeat on their hosts, Stephenson got a brace this time with Frank Wilson and John Torbet weighing in with the other two.

The Clarets would not join Preston back in the top flight until after the Second World War but when they did return in the 1947/48 season they retuned in style. Cliff Britton’s Burnley side had beaten their local rivals 1-0 in a Christmas Day fixture with a last minute goal and they arrived at Deepdale aiming to clinch a record for undefeated away games one day later on Boxing Day. Fortunately Preston were having nothing of it, in front of 39,400 fans the Lilywhites won 3-2 thanks to a brace of goals from Andy McLaren and Harry Jackson grabbing the crucial third goal.

Fast forward 25 years and the sharp suits and brillcream had been swapped for big sideburns and flares as both teams were once again playing their football in the Second Division.

The 1972/73 campaign will be one that is remembered by Clarets fans for their promotion to the First Division but they arrived at Deepdale for the final game of the season still needing one more point to claim the Second Division title. But with QPR breathing down their necks they faced a PNE side who needed one point to ensure safety.

Burnley arrived at Deepdale to find that the pitch had been narrowed and watered heavily. And temporary PNE boss Frank Lord was taking no chances as he set an ultra-defensive formation packing defenders around goalkeeper Alan Kelly.

Surprisingly it was Preston who managed to score first when Alex Bruce slotted home on the stroke of half-time. Most of the 21,550 fans packed inside Deepdale erupted praying that this would be the goal that kept them in the division, they had suffered relegation at the hands of Blackpool three year earlier and to suffer the same fate again would have been too much. There would have been plenty of nails been bitten when Colin Waldron equalised just after the break but Lord’s team held on and kept their Second Division status whilst Burnley would march towards the top flight as Champions.

Q&A: Mark Jackson 11th February 2005

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Leicester City v Preston North End

Mark, how does it feel getting into the first team squad and getting your first player sponsorship?
It feels good I’m a Preston lad so being in the Preston first team is obviously a dream come true and I feel very proud that someone has taken the time out to try and sponsor me and I am very appreciative of that.

You made a good debut at Leicester, how do you think you are developing as a player?
I am trying my best all the time. It was good, a dream debut more or less, we won and I am looking to to try my best all the time.

What is Billy Davies like as a manager, what did he say to you before your debut?
He is a very good manager he is trying to install loads of confidence in me, he believes in me and he has also given me the chance.

As a Preston lad was it your ambition at school to play for the North End?
Yes, it always has been, playing in front of the Preston people, people I know.

If you were not a footballer what would you be doing?
I don’t know to be honest, maybe a fireman or a policeman, something like that.

Which player do you most admire and why?
I quite like Dennis Bergkamp, I like the way he creates space and creates goals as well as scoring goals.

Flashback – Ipswich Town 10th February 2005

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There isn’t too much to look back on in terms of games between Preston North End and Ipswich Town. Despite both clubs being around since the 1870s they have only come up against each other 15 times, and it has to be said that the Tractor Boys have had the upper hand, especially in recent years.

But it wasn’t always like that, in fact if North End’s first three fixtures against Ipswich were anything to go by, you would have thought that the Suffolk club were PNE’s lucky omens.

The two clubs first clashed in an FA Cup Fifth Round tie in the 1953/54 season. Scott Symon’s side had safely negotiated their way through the previous two rounds of the Cup, with 2-0 victories at Derby County and Lincoln City and when Third Division Ipswich Town arrived at Deepdale for the Fifth Round many expected to see a rout.

But Scott Phillips’ side were not arriving in the North West with a bad reputation, they were chasing promotion and had already defeated the likes of Reading and Birmingham in previous rounds.

34,630 fans crammed into North End’s home and the Preston folk would not be disappointed as they were treat to a stunning display of attacking football from the Lilywhites, a pair of braces from Charlie Wayman and Jimmy Baxter plus goals from Angus Morrison and Tom Finney helped PNE to a fine 6-1 win, a victory that catapulted North End into that epic quarter-final tie with Leicester City.

It would be over 10 years before the two sides would clash again, but the results were not much different. North End had slipped down a division for the first league encounter between the two clubs.

Jimmy Milne’s side probably still had the FA Cup Final defeat to West Ham fresh in their memory when they embarked upon the 1964/65 campaign and they got off to a slow start with a 0-0 draw at home to Rotherham United a 3-3 thriller at Cardiff City.

So there was a definite case of venturing into the unknown when Preston made their first ever trip to Portman Road to take on an Ipswich side managed by former Newcastle legend Jackie Milburn.

Milburn was following in the footsteps of Alf Ramsey who had departed for England the previous year and he wasn’t having too impressive a start to the season. The week before North End’s arrival he had watched his side defeated 3-1 at home to Coventry and the last thing he wanted was the visit of a North End side tipped by many to one of the favourites to return to the top flight.

Those fears were realised when North End put on one of their most impressive performances of what turned out to be another disappointing year. A Brian Godfrey hat-trick and a brace of goals from David Wilson helped Milne’s men to a fine 5-1 win at Ipswich.

Milburn had departed Portman Road by the time the two teams met just before Christmas later in the season, new boss Bill McGarry’s main task would have been keeping the score respectable after shipping 11 goals in the first two encounters with North End, but that was not to be!

Brian Godfrey brought his tally against Ipswich to five with a brace and Alex Dawson also chipped in with a couple goals in a 4-1 win. It was a partnership that would produce 53 goals between them during the season, unfortunately it was leaking goals at the back that led to PNE’s demise that year, only the bottom club Swansea conceded more goals than them that year, as North End had to be content with mid-table mediocrity.

One season on and North End still held the upper hand, although the first signs of their grip slipping were starting to show. A 2-0 win in late November of 1966 is actually the last time that PNE beat Ipswich and we have goals from Nobby Lawton and Alan Spavin to thank for that. Later in the year Ipswich scored their first ever success over the Lilywhites when they held North End to a 0-0 draw.

The following season and Bill McGarry’s team were easily the superior, a 1-1 draw at Deepdale would be seen as a decent result for Bobby Seith’s team in the greater scheme of things because by the time North End travelled to Portman Road to be thrashed 4-0 in March of 1968, Ipswich were heading for the Second Division Championship and the Lilywhites were heading for the bottom three.

And that was that as far as league meetings between the two teams go until the Tractor Boys were relegated from the Premiership at the end of the 2001/02 season. Those more recent seasons have seen Ipswich carry on from where they left off in 1968 with impressive wins at Portman Road and hard fought draws at Deepdale.

If the Lilywhites historians can take anything from studying previous battles between the two clubs, the fact remains that in the long and illustrious histories of both clubs Ipswich have never won a league game at Deepdale.