A season which for me began with a friendly at a very warm Morecambe will end with a League 1 play off final against Swindon Town at the National Stadium in the lovely North West of London. Given that a couple of weeks ago we had blown a massive chance to gain automatic promotion by failing to beat Colchester, we have earned a second chance to finish the job against a very useful Swindon side. Grayson deserves a medal for picking the team up from the floor following the desperate events in Essex, winning both games against Chesterfield was no mean feat. Injuries wise only Gallagher was a doubt following his foot injury in the semi final second leg, but he has been training in the last couple of days so would expect him to play. Would also like to see Kilkenny play as I thought he made a huge difference in the second leg making sure we had more time on the ball than recently. Swindon have a doubt about Thompson at the back after his hamstring went twang in the chaotic second leg game against the Blades. Otherwise expect them to have the same side that scraped through in the end, expect Cooper will have worked on their defending although if we put the back line under pressure could be very interesting. The Robins are excellent going forward with lots of pace in the team and should provide a stern test for the Whites. It could be a very entertaining game whoever copes with the occasion will win, if it is us then good if not it will congratulations to Swindon. Only down side to the day, is the ridiculous kick off time, we really are interested to see who goes down between Hull and Newcastle and the rail work on the train network, does not make getting to London easy. Setting off at 9.30am going to be a long day but hopefully successful. Match report maybe Monday but will probably be asleep for most of the day. Up the Whites
Well after watching for 46 years finally get to see my team win promotion and actually being there at the same time, should have seen them go up three weeks ago but the wait was worth it in the end A quite surreal afternoon though at the national stadium, never in a million years did I think we would be 3 up at half time against a more than decent Swindon side, although it is has to be said that as good as they were going forward the Robins were utterly clueless at the back. After a long delay mainly due to Sky Sports wanting to get their Premiership coverage finished, North End flew out of the blocks taking the lead in the third minute, Gallagher floated in a free kick Beckford fired home from 6 yards holding off the shirt tugging attention of Thompson to score. It was Thompson's last action as he was carried off after landing awkwardly. Ten minutes later it was two after Gallagher again supplied the cross this time Huntington managed to ghost in a la Martin Peters too double the lead. Absolute dream start for North End. Swindon unsurprisingly were rocked and it took them a while to settle but when they did they began to pass the ball well without really looking threatening. The Robins pushed and probed but North End stuck to the plan that worked in the league game a month earlier. Stephens nearly brought the Robins back into the game with a long mazy run but his shot was deflected narrowly wide. Just before half time came a pivotal moment the impressive Byrne managed to put over a pinpoint cross, Smith should have scored he didn't. From the resultant goal kick, Garner's header feel at the feet of Beckford, he turned one way then the other then curled a left footed beauty past the despairing dive of Foderingham. Three up absolute heaven. Would Swindon make the greatest recovery in the history of the game, well no, within a minute of the start of the second half Beckford escaped past the non existant back line but his shot was saved by Foderingham. Didn't matter 10 minutes later after tigerish work by Johnson the ball fell to Beckford again similar scenario this time he scored, completed his hat trick and made it 4-0. All that was left was to bide out time to the final whistle and promotion. Davies could have scored to make it five but could not quite reach a Garner header. Credit to Swindon they kept on going and late in the game the underworked Johnstone had to make two fine saves from Turnbill and Obika. Cue the final whistle delirium in the North End end, and workforce cleaning up the litter in the Swindon end. The marathon has come to an end and we can all now concentrate on the summer apart from Mr Grayson who has much work to do this summer. 13 players out of contract and some quality replacements to be brought in if we are to make inroads in the Championship. A top day out although at 21 hours a long one. Finally have to say exceptionally well organised trip by the club and also fantastic organisation at Wembley by the staff there. Thank you League 1 we were only loan only, a 4 year loan at that but next August it is the Championship. GET IN Preston North End 4 Swindon Town 0 Att 48236
Right chuffed. Maclad, you know about the inner goings on in football. Is it too cynical to speculate that losing to Colchester and having to be involved in the play-offs was financially more lucrative than automatic promotion. 3 more games with good crowds? Also, dosh from Sky? I have a feeling if the rules were two up/two down, NE would have slaughtered Colchester.
Thanks to all well wishers from other teams. Hope you all have success next season...except against NE if we should meet!
No Grayson wanted to go up at Colchester on the day we didn't turn up and Colchester did, no conspiracy theory.
