Preston North End.

an English professional football club located in the Deepdale area of the city of Preston, Lancashire, currently playing in the second tier of English league football, The Championship. They were a founding member of the English Football League in 1888 and were the first English football champions.

In the past Preston were famously successful, 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 — also with the record of never conceding a goal in the FA Cup, only Arsenal F.C., in 2003-04, have managed to have an unbeaten season in any league division since, with the Gunners also achieving the feat in the top flight (although Arsenal played 38 games to Preston's 22). PNE were league champions again the following season, and have not won the title since. Their last major trophy was an FA Cup triumph in 1938. Preston were relegated to the Second Division (currently the Football League Championship) in 1961 and have not played in the top division since. They did reach the FA Cup final in 1964, but lost to West Ham United. Preston were relegated to Third Division in 1969-70 season. Preston won the Third Division title at the first attempt and so returned to the Second Division.

Bobby Charlton, an England World Cup winner from 1966, was appointed Preston manager in 1973, but was unable to stop them from sliding into the Third Division in his first season and left after two years in charge. A brief respite in 1978 saw them win promotion back to the Second Division, but they went down after three seasons and in 1985 fell into the Fourth Division for the first time in their history.


Preston North End in 1888-89, the first Football League champions, subsequently doing 'The Double'In 1986, Preston finished second from bottom in the Fourth Division and only avoided dropping into the Football Conference because the other Football League members voted in favour of the division's bottom four teams retaining their senior status.

The arrival of new manager John McGrath saw Preston win promotion to the Third Division a year later, and they were still at this level when McGrath left in 1990. Veteran player Les Chapman took over as manager, but left in October 1992 to be replaced by John Beck. The 38-year-old Beck had only recently been sacked by Cambridge United, where he had achieved two successive promotions and come within a whisker of attaining a unique third. Beck was unable to save Preston from relegation from the first season of the new Division Two. He endured a Division Three playoff final failure before quitting in 1994 to be replaced by his assistant Gary Peters

Peters guided Preston to Division Three title glory in his first full season as manager, and quit in February 1998 to be replaced by 34-year-old defender David Moyes. Preston quickly developed into Division Two promotion contenders under Moyes, reaching the 1998-99 playoffs (losing to Gillingham in the semi-finals before finally being promoted as champions a year later.

Deepdale Stadium was built in 1860 and opened in 1878.

Deepdale is the longest continuously used football ground in the world, in 2011 it will have been used for 135 years. The biggest attendance seen was 42,684 for a Division One clash with Arsenal in April 1938.

In 1933 the Town End burnt down and was demolished and rebuilt.

Following a complete reconstruction between 1996 and 2009, the stadium now holds a capacity of 23,408 seats, and can add extensions by removing the roofs on 3 stands to put up extra tiers for seating, if this is ever done the maximum it can hold will be 50,000 spectators.

The stadium was chosen as the location for the National Football Museum due to Preston being the first ever winners of the Football championship and therefore making Preston the first home of English football. It is also one of the largest football museums in the world.

Deepdale also appears in the name of the club mascot Deepdale Duck.

The current pitch dimensions are 110x77 yards.

Famous Preston North End Fans:

Andrew Flintoff - Cricketer
Mark Lawrenson - Match Of The Day

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Posted By: Tombs, Sep 15, 20:36:14