Tomorrow North End play their 5,000 league game at Deepdale against fellow Founder Members, Derby County. The Corona virus dictates that the game will be played behind closed doors denying, for the right reasons, many who would loved to have attended this land mark moment. North End will be the first football league club to achieve this milestone although the doubters will say ..it just means you have been in the lower leagues for much of your existence. That is true to an extent but if you come across one of the doubters...perhaps someone born in PRI and lived all their life in Fulwood who proudly boasts about being a U-NI-TED fan or perhaps foghorn leghorn who was letting off fireworks last week when Liverpool won the league but couldn`t tell you what the pub was called behind the Kop at Anfield. Sit the fuckers down and educate them with a little piece of history.
Tell them that when they joined the glory train you stayed loyal for all your life, doesn`t matter whether you are 9 or 99, tell them your heart almost bursts out of your chest when you say you support Preston North End. Mention to them that this club, your club, were the Pioneers of Professional football in this Country. A team that won the league without losing a game and won the Cup without conceding a goal....in the same season. Tell them that football existed before 1992 and that history is something you can never take away. Tell them that Liverpool were half way up the second division in 1959 when Shankly went as manager and stayed there for 15 years... a year less than he was at Preston. So if they tell you we stole his name for our Kop....just educate them a little.
Tell them of the great players that played for this club, your club, and make sure that Lamb is standing proud on the left side of your chest when you do it. Shankly, Kelly , Finney and the Old Invincibles ..just tell them to stand in the Centre Circle at Deepdale and feel real history...your history because you battled through the dark days and the rainy days and stayed loyal to the club and the place where you were born.
People talk about the Derby as if they were world beaters, well for all their bluster their honours board reads slightly less than ours does. League Champions twice, same as us but only one FA Cup to our two. Yes, Rooney might be playing his time out for them but if Finney had have had the back room staff that footballers today have he would have made Wayne Rooney look like Micky Rooney such was the great mans fantastic ability.
Finally to the players tomorrow night. When you walk out at an eerily quiet Deepdale just give the badge a little rub on the way out and mean it. Look over at Sir Tom`s face in the stand and count to twenty. In those 20 seconds just try to imagine the roar of the crowd as Finney goes down the right wing and cuts inside on his wand of a left foot. Pinch yourself to make sure you are not dreaming and that you really are playing for the same club as one of the All Time Greats of World football. You`ve still got a few seconds left so think of the fans all glued to their screen hoping and praying you pull out the win we desperately need.... for they also serve who sit and wait. This isn`t Old Trafford or Anfield my friends...This is Deepdale, this is history.....make sure you add your name to it.
Tell them that when they joined the glory train you stayed loyal for all your life, doesn`t matter whether you are 9 or 99, tell them your heart almost bursts out of your chest when you say you support Preston North End. Mention to them that this club, your club, were the Pioneers of Professional football in this Country. A team that won the league without losing a game and won the Cup without conceding a goal....in the same season. Tell them that football existed before 1992 and that history is something you can never take away. Tell them that Liverpool were half way up the second division in 1959 when Shankly went as manager and stayed there for 15 years... a year less than he was at Preston. So if they tell you we stole his name for our Kop....just educate them a little.
Tell them of the great players that played for this club, your club, and make sure that Lamb is standing proud on the left side of your chest when you do it. Shankly, Kelly , Finney and the Old Invincibles ..just tell them to stand in the Centre Circle at Deepdale and feel real history...your history because you battled through the dark days and the rainy days and stayed loyal to the club and the place where you were born.
People talk about the Derby as if they were world beaters, well for all their bluster their honours board reads slightly less than ours does. League Champions twice, same as us but only one FA Cup to our two. Yes, Rooney might be playing his time out for them but if Finney had have had the back room staff that footballers today have he would have made Wayne Rooney look like Micky Rooney such was the great mans fantastic ability.
Finally to the players tomorrow night. When you walk out at an eerily quiet Deepdale just give the badge a little rub on the way out and mean it. Look over at Sir Tom`s face in the stand and count to twenty. In those 20 seconds just try to imagine the roar of the crowd as Finney goes down the right wing and cuts inside on his wand of a left foot. Pinch yourself to make sure you are not dreaming and that you really are playing for the same club as one of the All Time Greats of World football. You`ve still got a few seconds left so think of the fans all glued to their screen hoping and praying you pull out the win we desperately need.... for they also serve who sit and wait. This isn`t Old Trafford or Anfield my friends...This is Deepdale, this is history.....make sure you add your name to it.