Preston North End Football Club is a professional English football team. It currently (2004-2005) play in the Football League Championship
Perston's home ground is at Deepdale in the city of Preston, Lancashire, and they are nicknamed the 'Lilywhites'.
Formed in 1881 and one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, Preston North End won the first league championship (1888-89). The club was also the first to achieve the 'double' of winning the FA Cup (1889, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0) and the Football League championship in the same season. This double was even more extraordinary in that the league was won without a single defeat, a feat which would not be repeated in the top division until 2003-04 (by Arsenal). Equally impressive was that the cup was won without conceding a single goal. During this period the team was nicknamed "The Invincibles" and featured a collection of local and Scottish players renowned for their eccentric behaviour. One centre forward used to walk his fox on the pitch during half time.
Preston's most famous player is the legendary Tom Finney, one of England's finest ever forwards who combined playing throughout his long career for his home town club with running a successful plumbing business. Finney scored 30 times for England, in the company of such greats as Stanley Matthews who starred for local rivals Blackpool. After Finney's retirement in 1960, North End reached the F.A. Cup Final in the 1963-64 season, losing to West Ham 3 - 2 after a titantic struggle in front of a 100,000 capacity crowd. Finney remains close to the club, serving as President to this day.
Preston North End played in the top two divisions of the League continuously until 1970. They also won the FA Cup in 1938 (beating Huddersfield Town 1-0). In 1970, however, they were relegated to Division 3 for the first time, but bounced back by winning the Division 3 championship 1970-71. The club did not maintain its position though, dropping eventually to Division 4 in 1985.
Preston showed their flair for innovation with the introduction of a controversial plastic pitch in the late eighties, a move as unpopular with the fans as it was with visiting teams. The pitch saw its last game against Torquay at the end of the 1993/4 season in the second leg of the play off semi finals. Trailing 2 - 0 from the first leg, North End needed to score 4 goals after Torquay hit an early goal at Deepdale. Seconds from the final whistle Paul Raynor hit North End's 4th to clinch a place at Wembley, where North End went down 4 - 2 to Wycombe Wanderers despite Ian Bryson's miraculous overhead kick. The plastic pitch was ripped up by thousands of excited North End fans after the semi final, who grabbed the opportunity to take a piece of history home.
Managed by Gary Peters, Preston won promotion from the renamed Division 3 in 1996, under the captaincy of Ian Bryson amid emotional scenes at their Deepdale home. During the 1990s, however, Preston continued to prosper under manager David Moyes who clinched promotion to Division 1 in 1999.
Currently they are managed by ex-Motherwell boss Billy Davies and are attempting to re-emerge from some dark days under Craig Brown who joined the club after Moyes left to manage Premiership giants Everton.
Famous players
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