Tag: Tom Finney

Big Interview: Alan Kelly Snr 10th May 2005

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Preston North End’s last ever game in the top flight of English football came against Bolton Wanderers at the old Burnden Park ground on April 29th 1961. Watching from the stands that day was a young goalkeeper who was to spend his entire footballing career trying to get the Lilywhites back into the top flight but to no avail.

The matchday programme speaks to Deepdale Legend and the man who holds the record for PNE appearances, Alan Kelly Snr.

“I was really delighted when I saw that they were in the play-offs,” Kelly says from his home over in the United States.

“I was just watching the highlights of the game against Derby last Sunday and I wouldn’t pay any attention to that result. I am sure on the day the lads will have their sleeves rolled up and that they will do well.

“It would be great for the town, the people of Preston are great football-minded people and it is great that they have something to go at and I am sure the place will be packed solid and it will be the same when they play at Derby the following week.

“It would be nice for them to make a return to the top division, it will be terrific for the team after a lot of years of not being in there.”

Kelly didn’t become a regular in the North End line-up until the season after they had been relegated from the old Division One and even though many suggested that Tom Finney’s retirement played a huge role in PNE’s demise, the Irishman reckons that the Lilywhites still had some great players capable of keeping them in the division.

“I was just talking to somebody the other day and we were talking about the old days at Preston North End, the likes of Tommy Docherty, Frank O’Farrell, Tom Finney, Jimmy Baxter, Fred Else who was in goal, the time we were top of the First Division, what is the Premiership now. That was a really great side.

“Losing Tom Finney didn’t help and although there were some really good players in the team it was just Tom’s presence on the field, there used to be two or three players marking him and that created a little outlet for other players. There wasn’t many games when he didn’t do his stuff either!

“Tom was probably one of the best players in the world when he played and no side likes to be without a player of Tom Finney’s calibre.

“But when we went down the club had some really good players and we probably didn’t play particularly well. We had some good patches and some bad patches and we were a little bit inconsistent. It was a sad day for the club, for any club that gets relegated it is a sad day.”

The Lilywhites are once again within touching distance for what is probably only the third time since the club dropped out of the top flight, younger fans will only remember the play-off final of 2001 but Kelly remembers a season that the club almost made it back automatically.

“It was 1964 and it was Sunderland, Leeds and us all season and I think most years in those days if you got 56 points you were almost guaranteed promotion, of course there were only two teams went up in those days.

“That year I think we did get 56 points but Leeds and Sunderland had a few points more than us, that was the year we got to the Cup Final.

“The game has changed so much since then. They are talking about millions now when you go into the Premier League, I always think if only that could have happened to me. I was watching on the TV and I saw that Wigan Athletic just got promotion and who would have thought of that!? But good luck to them, they have done great, it is a great boost for a team like that which is basically a rugby town.”

This week’s match-up with Derby County brings back fond memories of a former team-mate for Kelly Snr, a player who started his English career at Deepdale before moving on to greater things at the Baseball Ground.

“Archie Gemmill never stopped, he was one of those players who the minute he stepped on the field he never stopped running, whether it was was in attack or defence, he wouldn’t stop for 90 minutes, he was a little dynamo.

“Derby were always a good footballing side and when you played against them you knew that you were going to get a hard game. They always wanted to play some good football as well and I am sure that it is going to be a great sort of fixture on both legs.”

But it was Alan Kelly Snr who went on to become the Deepdale Legend, so much so that they named one of the stands after him at the ground and the legendary stopper is hoping that the fans that sit in that part of the ground can cheer his team on to glory.

“Preston always get great support, even when we were having bad times we were always great with the support, they are a very knowledgeable public.

“I hope that they give the lads a lift and I am sure that they will, I hope it all works the right way, I’ll have fingers crossed, legs crossed, everything crossed hoping that it will.”

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 – 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.