GROUND HISTORY TRAVEL

Preston North End are quite a big deal when you consider the history of professional football in England. Founding members of the Football League, the club were the first ever champions in 1888 and became the first ever to win the league and FA Cup double the following season. Talk about setting down a marker.

The Lilywhites have two FA Cup successes to their name but they have appeared in the final in many more occasions, but not necessarily that recently. And some of the finest names to grace English football have turned out for Preston North End - Sir Tom Finney perhaps standing head and shoulders above all else.

From the 1960s onwards, however, the club started to drop down the leagues and were found second bottom of the old Division Four in 1985/6. That acted as a prelude to a prolonged ascension to the second tier of English football in 2000. It was nearly much more than that; twice thwarted in the Championship playoffs in 2005 (Bolton) and 2006 (West Ham).

In 2006/7, the club hit the top spot in the Championship but finished outside the playoff spaces come the end of the season. From then, another slump kicked in and in 2010/1, the Lilywhites ended their stay in the Championship with relegation to League One for the first time in more than a decade.

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