Fans Focus
In this section we bring you articles written by North End fans on many subjects, some North End related, others just football related.
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History Repeating Itself
Geoff Ollerton
Thursday 3rd January 2008
It should be no surprise that PNE are in the predicament that they see themselves in at this point in time. For as I see it this surely is history repeating itself!
Let's go back to the mid sixties, in 1964 PNE had one of the best teams outside the top flight, we even reached the FA Cup Final and helped make that match one of the best Cup Finals ever, we also missed out on promotion to Div 1 by the skin of our teeth finishing third behind Leeds and Sunderland.
The start of the 1964/65 season was filled with expectation but alas the board had suddenly discovered that players were now saleable assets and this is where the story really begins.
Howard Kendal was shipped out to Everton and the never ending selling of our best players began. It took from 1965 until 1970 to see PNE slip from being a top of the table side to relegation certs and indeed at the end of the 1969/70 season we fell into Div 3 for the first time in our history.
Since that sad day, the odd season of success apart, we struggled on, digging ourselves deeper and deeper into the mire by constantly selling anything that was worth selling. We were always told that this was the only way we could survive, whilst clubs such as Norwich, Ipswich, Wimbledon and even Carlisle for a time all climbed up the leagues and tasted top flight football. (I mention clubs such as Norwich, Wimbledon and Ipswich simply because previous to us 'selling to survive' they were nowhere near us in stature and had no previous history whatsoever). We on the other hand scratched about at the bottom of the Football League barrel, a consequence of our 'survival' policy.
Then up popped Baxi, and Bryan Gray with a master plan to turn Deepdale into a ground to be proud of, and with a promise that Preston North End will no longer be a 'selling' club.
The plan of course worked, PNE climbed the leagues until we found ourselves in the second tier of English football once again, culminating in the play-off final of the season 2000.
Alas for whatever reason Bryan Gray left the club shortly after this and although we have for a time still challenged up there at the top of the Championship eventually the renewed policy of selling off the best players has taken its toll. We now find ourselves once again struggling at the bottom of the league with relegation looking a distinct possibility.
It has taken from the season 2001/02 until 2007/08 to reach such a low but I sincerely hope that today's board take heed and do not allow history to repeat itself at Preston North End.
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