Waiting For The Premier League (2000-2007)
Despite many good judges predicting a tough time for the club in Division One, they continued to make strong progress, having a storming season to finish fourth, again falling foul of the play-offs in a 3-0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers after beating Birmingham City in an epic semi-final shoot-out at Deepdale. During the 2000-01 season, North End smashed their transfer record in paying £1.5 million for David Healy. The National Football Museum also opened under the Bill Shankly Kop and the Sir Tom Finney Stand.
With Preston beginning to look like strong candidates for promotion to the Premiership, it was no surprise that their talented young manager was beginning to turn heads. In March 2002, both star striker Jon Macken (to Manchester City for £5 million) and Moyes (to Everton), left the club – but it cannot be denied that Preston North End FC was in a more prosperous position than it had been in for years.
Moyes's successor Craig Brown endured a difficult two seasons in charge, never really winning over the fans with his 3-5-2 formation and suffering badly with injuries. When his side went down 1-0 at Brighton thanks to a Marlon Broomes own goal in September 2004, Brown was sacked and replaced with his assistant Billy Davies.
For two consecutive seasons under Davies, North End lost in the play-offs, at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium to West Ham in the 2004-05 final to a Bobby Zamora winner, and the following season in the semi-finals in a highly-charged two-legged affair against Leeds United.
Soon after this latest close call, the highly-rated Davies left the club to join Derby County, accusing Preston chairman Derek Shaw of not matching his ambitions and of lying. In his place came the Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson, who immediately replaced the recently-departed defenders Claude Davis and Tyrone Mears with Sean St. Ledger and Liam Chilvers.
The 2006/07 season started well under Simpson, seeing Preston rise to the top of the Championship in December, the highest league place the team has reached in 55 years. Despite much interest in striker David Nugent, Simpson was able to hold on to the player throughout the January transfer window. On 28 March, Nugent went on to get his full international debut for England, and even managed to score his first international goal in the 90th minute of the match against Andorra. This was the first time a Preston player received a full international cap for England since Tom Finney. It was around this time that Preston went into a decline, which in the end meant the team missing out on a playoff spot in the final few weeks of the season.
Read more about this topic: History Of Preston North End F.C.
Famous quotes containing the words waiting and/or league:
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at last.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
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