FA Cup First Round: Preston North End v Southend United

 

 

 

 

 

In the past Preston enjoyed significant success, being the first winners of "The Double" in English football. In 1888–89 Preston became the only team to go throughout an entire season unbeaten in both the league and FA Cup — only Arsenal F.C., in 2003–04, have managed to have an unbeaten season in the top division since. They were league champions again the following season, but have not won the title since. Their last major trophy was an FA Cup triumph in 1938.

 

Preston North End were founded as a cricket club in 1862, although it would take nearly twenty years after the formation of the club in its original form before their first football match.

The cricket team played their first game in the summer of 1862 at 'The Marsh', a strip of land next to the River Ribble in Ashton; it has been reported they were known for a short period of time as Preston Nelson, but Nelson and North End have played on the same day giving huge doubts to this fact. The club soon adopted the suffix 'North End' as they were based in the north end of Preston.

The club's move to the Deepdale area of the town dates back to January 1875, when land at Deepdale Farm was used. At this point, North End adopted rugby union as a second sport in an attempt to attract enough spectators to offset the heavy costs of the cricketers.

This proved a failed experiment. By this time, rival side Preston Grasshoppers had been in existence for a number of years, and it proved impossible to compete with the two or three thousand spectators they managed to attract each week.

However, prompted by the success of the sport in East Lancashire, the club gradually adopted association football, and on 5 October 1878 they played their first match, losing 1-0 to Eagley F.C. In May 1880 they made the decision to permanently adopt the association code. The club played ten games that season, including one against Blackburn Rovers on 26 March 1881. It is reported that Preston were beaten 16-0. Preston North End still played cricket during the summer months.

Over the next few years, North End's ground at Deepdale gradually improved its facilities and increased in size. Association football had become a major attraction in the town, and the man at the helm of the club, Major William Sudell, had a clear vision of how to make Preston North End the supreme side of the entire country.

Sudell's plan was to 'import' top players from other areas, primarily Scotland - which provided talent for many English clubs of the time in the form of the Scotch Professors, rather than rely on local talent like other clubs. They were to be rewarded by being paid match fees and being 'accommodated' with highly paid work in the Preston area.

This led to accusations of professionalism from Preston's rivals. In 1884 for instance, Upton Park, who arrived at Deepdale for a FA Cup tie, complained to the Football Association that their opponents had fielded a team packed with Scottish professionals. The FA expelled North End from the tournament, but a threat from thirty-six northern teams to break away and form a rival football association forced the FA to legalise professionalism in 1885.

This period saw the arrival of 'The Invincibles'; mostly recruited from north of the border as was the case with Nick Ross, his younger brother Jimmy Ros, David Russell, John Goodall and Geordie Drummond. There were some local players, such as full back Bob Holmes and winger Fred Dewhurst.

During this time, North End beat Hyde 26-0 in the first round of the FA Cup in 1887-88 – which to this day remains an English first-class football record.

The Football League was founded in 1888; North End were one of the founder members and went on to make history. In the League's first season (1888-89), North End were inaugural league champions, achieving the feat without losing a match. On top of this, they completed the league and cup 'Double', winning the FA Cup without conceding a single goal, defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 in the final. Preston were the first club to achieve the league and cup "Double" and they did so with a majority of their team being made up of "Scotch Professors" - as the professional Scottish players of the time were known.

In 1889-90 Sudell's team repeated the feat in the League, but it wasn't long before rival teams improved. Despite many close calls, North End would never match The Invincibles' feat by winning the Football League Championship again.

As Dave Russell points out in his book Preston North End: 100 Years in the Football League, one event took place in this period which would make it virtually impossible for North End to find the wages to compete with the elite in attracting top players.

In 1960, the PFA, led by Jimmy Hill voted overwhelmingly to go on strike in an attempt to see the abolition of the maximum wage. When the Football League finally relented, wages increased greatly, and young players developed by the smaller clubs as a way around this difficulty were lured away or sold in order to reduce debts.

However, North End still managed to reach the FA Cup Final in 1964. Their opponents this time were to be West Ham United, who contained future World Cup winners Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. Considering the Lilywhites' Second Division status, they started the game as clear underdogs. Despite this, and containing the youngest player in FA Cup Final history in seventeen-year-old Howard Kendall, Jimmy Milne's side looked the likely winners for long periods, taking the lead twice through Doug Holden and Alex Dawson. However West Ham proved too strong in the end and a last-minute winner by Ronnie Boyce saw the Londoners home 3-2.

Following the cup final defeat, the sales of Kendall, Dawson and Dave Wilson saw the club relegated to the Third Division for the first time in its history in 1970 after a defeat by local rivals Blackpool, who in the process confirmed their own promotion.

New manager Alan Ball ensured that North End bounced straight back up as champions. Promotion was secured after Easter with a Ricky Heppolette goal in a 1-0 victory over the then-leaders Fulham.

The rest of the 1970s saw a period of yo-yoing between the Second and Third Divisions, seeing relegation under Bobby Charlton in 1973/74 – who resigned in protest over the sale of John Bird to Newcastle United – and promotion under Nobby Stiles in 1977/78, inspired by the likes of goalkeeper Roy Tunks, defender Mick Baxter, midfielder Gordon Coleman and the dynamic strike force of Alex Bruce and Mike Elwiss.

At the same time the emerging Michael Robinson was sold for a club record fee of £765,000 to Manchester City, whilst Alan Spavin retired.

In 1980/81, North End were relegated back to the Third Division in 20th place (on goal difference). Many players left the club along with manager Stiles at this time, with new boss Tommy Docherty making wholesale changes. However, they were not for the better and the events of the early 1980s would take the club perilously close to disintegration.

During the close season before the 2007/08 season, striker David Nugent left Preston to join Portsmouth for a club record fee of £6,000,000. Simpson, with a much inflated transfer budget due to this sale, brought in Billy Jones, Kevin Nicholls, Karl Hawley and Darren Carter. Despite these signings, Preston's poor form continued from the end of the previous season, seeing the club pick up only three wins before Simpson was sacked on 13 November.

He was then replaced with Alan Irvine, who had been second-in-command to ex-manager David Moyes at Everton, on a 3½-year contract Irvine was able to reverse the club's bad luck, and he was able to get the club out of the relegation zone, and even managed to get the club to finish in a respectable 15th place in the league. In his first full season in charge he managed to guide Preston to a unexpected 6th position in the league and helped them make the play offs in which Preston lost 2-1 on aggregate to Sheffield United. The 2009–2010 season started brightly for the team with a good run of results early on. However the momentum could not be maintained and after a poor run of results manager Alan Irvine was sacked on the 29 December. Preston did not waste any time in appointing a replacement and Darren Ferguson was signed on a 3½-year contract on 6 January 2010.

Ferguson continued the bad run of form until the end of the season, despite bringing in players from Manchester United such as Danny Welbeck and Matthew James. However, after a heart-pounding last minute win over Scunthorpe, Preston had secured safety. Then came a dramatic summer, which saw the Lilywhites being bought by long time shareholder and leisure tycoon Trevor Hemmings. He brought in Maurice Lindsay to replace former chairman Derek Shaw and a ruthless cost-cutting regieme began, which (over half a season) saw high earners like Ross Wallace and Richard Chaplow leave as well as fan's favourites Youl Mawéné and Jon Parkin.

Preston started the 2010/11 campaign in a similar way, which saw both poor performances and poor results. Ferguson brought in more players into the team, including a few more from his father's team (such as Ritchie De Laet and Joshua King), ex North Enders Michael Tonge and Danny Pugh and Iain Hume (who scored in Preston's historic comeback against Leeds United). But ultimately the unpopular and incompetent Darren Ferguson was sacked on the 29th December (ironically the same date his predecessor, Alan Irvine lost his job). This prevoked a childish re-action from Alex Ferguson who recalled all of the players on loan from Manchester United and encouraged his friend Tony Pulis to commit the same act.

On 6 January, (one year after Ferguson's appointment to the day), the charismatic Phil Brown was appointed as manager of Preston, with Brian Horton as his assistant. Preston's fortunes slowly turned and their form improved, however it appeared to be a case of "too little, too late" and the club finished 21st in the table, putting them back into League One for the first time for eleven years.

2011/12 In the Middle

10	Carlisle United	17	3	2	3	13	16	4	3	2	11	11	7	5	5	24	27	26	-3
11	Colchester United	17	3	4	1	14	10	2	4	3	11	14	5	8	4	25	24	23	+1
12	Hartlepool United	16	2	2	4	7	11	4	3	1	15	13	6	5	5	22	24	23	-2
13	Preston North End	16	4	1	3	17	18	3	1	4	14	16	7	2	7	31	34	23	-3
14	Oldham Athletic	17	3	2	3	8	9	3	2	4	14	18	6	4	7	22	27	22	-5
15	Bury	17	2	2	4	10	13	4	1	4	10	12	6	3	8	20	25	21	-5