Originally a cricket club, Preston has been based at Deepdale since 1875. The club first took up football in 1878 as a winter fitness activity, and decided to focus on it in May 1880, when the football club was officially founded. Deepdale is now football's oldest ground in terms of continuous use by a league club. Preston North End was a founder member of the Football League in 1888. In the 1888–89 season, the team won both the inaugural league championship and the FA Cup, the latter without conceding a goal. They were the first team to achieve the "Double" in English football and, as they were unbeaten in all matches, are remembered as "The Invincibles". Preston won the league championship again in 1889–90 but their only major success since then has been their 1938 FA Cup final victory over Huddersfield Town. The club's most famous players have been Sir Tom Finney, Alan Kelly Sr. and Bill Shankly, who are all commemorated at Deepdale by stands named after them.
Until 1961, Preston were usually members of the First Division but, having been relegated after the 1960–61 season, they have not yet returned to the top flight. They were first relegated to the Third Division after the 1969–70 season and have spent 28 of the 49 seasons since 1970 in the bottom two divisions of the Football League, including a span of 19 seasons from 1981–1982 to 1999–2000. Preston has faced serious financial issues and was twice in danger of closure. The club was owned by businessman Trevor Hemmings until his death in October 2021 and has been in the EFL Championship since gaining promotion in 2015, with a highest finishing position since then of 7th (2017–18).
Preston North End was founded in 1863, originally as a cricket club, and played their first matches at the Marsh near the River Ribble in the Preston suburb of Ashton. Later that year, they switched to Moor Park in the north of the town, calling themselves "North End" in recognition of the new location. On 21 January 1875, the club leased a field opposite Moor Park on the site of the current Deepdale stadium, which has been its home ever since.[1]
The club formed a rugby union team in 1877 as a winter fitness activity but this was not a success and, a year later, they played their first game under the rules of association football. In May 1880, a proposal to fully adopt the association code was unanimously accepted and Preston North End Football Club was officially founded.[1]
Preston became one of the first professional clubs by hiring players from Scotland. The players who came from Scotland to play in England in those days were known as the Scotch Professors. In 1887, they beat Hyde26–0 in the first round of the FA Cup, still a record winning margin in English first-class football. Scottish forward Jimmy Ross scored eight goals in the match before going on to score 19 goals in the competition that season, also still a record.[2][3]
illustration of the 1888–89 Preston North End, the first Football League champions, subsequently doing 'The Double
In 1888–89, Preston became the first league champions and the first winners of "The Double", becoming the only team to date to go throughout an entire season unbeaten in both the league and FA Cup– winning the FA Cup without conceding a goal.[4] The team did so with a majority of their team being made up of Scottish players (the Scotch Professors).[5] In a contribution to Paul Agnew's 1989 biography of Tom Finney, the player himself wrote: "The club has long been known as Proud Preston, and the Old Invincibles of the previous century set some incredible standards".[6] The author wrote elsewhere: "...and that team became immortalised as the 'Old Invincibles'".[7] Other sources call the team "The Invincibles" and both versions of the nickname have been used.[8] In his autobiography, Finney wrote: "The championship stayed with North End — by now tagged the Old Invincibles — the following year, but runners-up spot had to suffice for the next three seasons".[9] As Finney said, Preston were league champions again in 1889–90, but have not won the title since. In total, they have been league runners-up six times, including the three consecutive seasons from 1890-91 to 1892–93, and twice in the 1950s when Finney was playing. The club's last major trophy win was in the 1938 FA Cup Final when they defeated Huddersfield Town 1–0 and the team included Bill Shankly, Andy Beattie and goalscorer George Mutch.[10]
Preston's most famous player, Tom Finney, joined the club as a teenager in 1938. His first team debut was delayed until 1946 by the Second World War but he played for Preston until he retired in 1960. He was nicknamed the "Preston Plumber" because of his local business. Finney remains the club's top goalscorer, with 187 goals from 433 appearances, and also scored 30 international goals for England in 76 appearances.[11]
A year after Finney's retirement, Preston were relegated to the Second Division and have not played in the top division since. They had a memorable season in 1963–64 when, managed by former player Jimmy Milne, they finished third in the Second Division and reached the 1964 FA Cup Final where they lost a thrilling match 3–2 to West Ham United.
Preston were first relegated to the Third Division after the 1969–70 season. Although they won promotion again immediately, the team have spent 28 of the 49 seasons since 1970 in the bottom two divisions, including a span of 19 seasons from 1981-82 to 1999–2000. The club experienced a near-terminal decline in the 1980s which brought about the very real threat of closure, the nadir being the 1985–86 season when they finished 23rd in the Fourth Division and had to seek re-election to the league.
Under David Moyes, Preston were Division Two champions in 2000, and narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League the following season.
Under manager John McGrath, the team recovered and won promotion back to the Third Division only a year later but it was a false dawn as the team spent another three years in the bottom division from 1993 to 1996. The club finally began to recover and move forward after a takeover by heating manufacturer Baxi in 1994 but their ownership ended in June 2002.[12][13] The team's central defender David Moyes, then aged 34, began his managerial career when appointed by the Baxi-controlled board in February 1998. Moyes was successful and managed the team to the third tier championship in 2000. Preston reached the 2001 play-off final but were defeated by Bolton Wanderers. In the 2005 play-off final, under Moyes' successor Billy Davies, Preston were beaten 1–0 by West Ham United.[14]
Following the Baxi sell-off and the departure of Moyes to Everton in 2002, the team was established at second-tier level through the 2000s but more problems arose at the end of the decade with an HM Revenue and Customs winding-up order in 2010 and relegation to the third tier in 2011. The taxation issue was resolved by local businessman Trevor Hemmings, already a shareholder, who bought a controlling interest in June 2010.[15] The team were promoted again, via the play-offs, in 2015 and have remained in the EFL Championship since then, with a highest finishing position of 7th in the 2017–18 season.
Deepdale was the original cricket club's home from 1875 and has been a football venue from 1878. It is the world's oldest football ground in terms of continuous use by a club in a major league. The biggest attendance seen was 42,684 for a Division One clash with Arsenal in April 1938.
When Baxi took control, it embarked on an investment programme between 1996 and 2009 with the aim of upgrading Deepdale into a modern stadium. The old ground was demolished and rebuilt in four stages and the last of the new stands was opened in 2008. The stadium has a seated capacity of 23,404. The current pitch dimensions are 110 x 75 yards.[16]
Part of the Baxi-funded redevelopment was the original National Football Museum which opened at Deepdale in 2001, but it was relocated to Manchester in 2012 after being closed for two years.[17]
Statue
The Splash commemorates Preston legend Tom Finney.
Outside the Sir Tom Finney Stand is a statue of the famous player himself, which is known as "The Splash" or the "Tom Finney Splash". The statue, sculpted by Peter Hodgkinson and unveiled in July 2004, was inspired by a famous photograph taken at the Chelsea versus Preston game in 1956, played at Stamford Bridge in particularly wet conditions.[16]
An attempt was made to destroy the ground in 1913. As part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign, suffragettes carried out a series of bombings and arson attacks nationwide during their campaign for women's suffrage.[18] In April 1913, suffragettes attempted to burn down Deepdale's grandstand but were foiled.[19] In the same year, suffragettes succeeded in burning downArsenal's then South London stadium, and also attempted to burn down Blackburn Rovers' ground.[19] More traditionally male sports were targeted in order to protest against male dominance.[20]
Preston North End have traditionally worn white shirts with blue shorts for their home kit, with yellow being a common colour for Preston's away kit. The club's main sponsors, since shirt sponsorship was introduced in 1979, have been as follows:[21]
Historically, Preston North End's main rivalry is with Blackpool — the two clubs' grounds being seventeen miles apart — and the West Lancashire derby between the two clubs has been contested 96 times across all four divisions of the Football League and cup competitions since 1901.[22] Preston's other local rivals in the league over the years include Blackburn Rovers, Burnley, Bolton Wanderers and Wigan Athletic.
Players
As of 30 August 2024
Current squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Youngest Ever Player: Ethan Walker 16 years and 156 days
Oldest Ever Player: Bob Kelly 41 years and two months[30]
Honours
In 1996, Preston's Third Division title made them the third club to have been champions of each of the top four professional leagues in English football. This feat was previously achieved by Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1988, and Burnley in 1992, and has since been achieved by Sheffield United and Portsmouth both in 2017.
Sir Thomas Finney was an English international footballer who played from 1946 to 1960 as a winger or centre forward for Preston North End and England. He is widely acknowledged to have been one of England's greatest-ever players. He was noted for his loyalty to Preston, for whom he made 433 Football League and 39 FA Cup appearances, scoring a total of 210 goals. He played for England 76 times, scoring 30 goals.
Deepdale is a football stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England, the home of Preston North End. Deepdale is widely recognised as being the oldest continuously used football stadium in the world, though this is contested.
The National Football Museum is England's national museum of football. It is based in the Urbis building in Manchester city centre, and preserves, conserves and displays important collections of football memorabilia.
Bamber Bridge Football Club is a football club based in Bamber Bridge, near Preston, Lancashire, England. They are currently members of the Northern Premier League Premier Division and play at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium. The club is fully owned by a community organisation that represents supporters of the club.
The 1956–57 season was the 77th season of competitive football in England.
In English football, "The Invincibles" is a nickname used to refer to the Preston North End team of the 1888–89 season, managed by William Sudell, and the Arsenal team of the 2003–04 season managed by Arsène Wenger. Preston North End earned the nickname after completing an entire season undefeated in league and cup competition, while Arsenal were undefeated in the league in a run that stretched to a record 49 games.
James Daniel Ross was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside forward.
Nigel Greenwood is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League.
Preston North End is an English football club in Preston, Lancashire which traces its origins to a local cricket club formed c.1863. This club moved to Deepdale in January 1875. They started playing football as a winter activity in 1878 and, in May 1880, took the decision to focus on football. Progress was rapid and the club became professional in 1883. They were a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and won the first two league championships in 1888–89 and 1889–90. Their team in 1888–89 also won the FA Cup and so became the first to achieve "The Double" in English football. In addition, the team was unbeaten in all first-class matches played that season and are famously remembered as "The Old Invincibles". Preston have had a chequered existence since 1890 and have won only one more major trophy, the 1937–38 FA Cup, when Bill Shankly was a key member of the team.
Thomas Thompson was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Aston Villa, Barrow, Newcastle United, Preston North End and Stoke City as well as the England national team.
Robert Holmes was a professional footballer, who played for Preston North End.
Baxi is a manufacturer and distributor of domestic and commercial water and space heating systems, based in Warwick, England. It is a subsidiary of European group BDR Thermea.
The West Lancashire derby is a local rivalry in English football between Lancashire clubs Blackpool and Preston North End. The derby has taken place across all four tiers of English football, but not the top flight since the formation of the Premier League. Blackpool were promoted to the Premier League in 2010; Preston North End have yet to reach it. They did not meet in the League between the 2009–10 and 2020–21 seasons, but did so again in the 2021–22 EFL Championship campaign following Blackpool's promotion from the third tier.
Ernest Hannigan was a Scottish footballer. Hannigan was a fast, tricky, right winger. He is perhaps best known for his games at 3 clubs and the partnership he forged with Scotland international centre forward Neil Martin at 2 of them; 147 games at Queen of the South and 47 at Coventry City and also for 98 games in between at Preston North End.
George Drummond, known as Geordie Drummond was a professional footballer who was a utility player, including playing as a left winger and a goalkeeper. Drummond played for St Bernard's before joining Preston North End.
Samuel Thomson was a Scottish footballer. A Scotland international, he was a member of the Preston North End side which became known as "The Invincibles".
Gordon Michael Coleman is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He began his career with Preston North End, remaining with the club for ten years and making over 300 appearances in all competitions before joining Bury in 1983. He spent one season with Bury and briefly played for Morecambe before retiring from football.
James Trainer was a Welsh association football player of the Victorian era. He was named the best goalkeeper of the English Football League several consecutive seasons starting in 1888–89, when he was part of the unbeaten Preston North End team nicknamed "The Invincibles".
George Herbert Thompson was an English footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the 1950s and 1960s for Scunthorpe United, Preston North End, Manchester City and Carlisle United including playing on the losing side in the 1954 FA Cup final.
Benjamin Keith Davies is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or left-back for EFL League One club Birmingham City, on loan from Scottish Premiership club Rangers.
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