Supporters
On 6 May 1978, at a concert by The Vibrators in Preston, a young man from Preston was stabbed to death during clashes between Preston and Blackpool fans. In 1996 there were 78 arrests when serious disorder broke out when the clubs met at Deepdale and pubs were trashed in Preston. The match was played on a Friday night and broadcast live on Sky. This derby saw significant disorder - including several pitch invasions - and was dubbed the "Night of Shame" by both the Lancashire Evening Post and the Blackpool Gazette.
Another fan died, this time of natural causes, on 17 April 1999. Kevin Halliwell, a 47-year-old lifelong Blackpool fan, collapsed just minutes before kick-off at Deepdale and died before reaching the Royal Preston Hospital.
Despite there being no match between the two clubs since 2000, the rivalry between the two sets of fans reignited itself on 2 September 2006, when a mini-riot broke out on Preston railway station between Blackpool fans returning from their match at Millwall and local Preston fans returning from an England match in Manchester. Bottles, cans and signs were hurled as the two sets of fans fought each other, and two British Transport Police officers were injured in what the police described as a large-scale disorder.
Blackpool were promoted to the Championship at the end of the 2006–07 season, winning the play-off final at Wembley. Promotion ensured that the rivalry with Preston North End would once again happen on the pitch with each club being in the Championship in the 2007–08 season. In June 2007, following threats from Blackpool and Preston hooligans to cause mayhem when the two clubs meet, Preston's top police officer, Chief Superintendent Mike Barton, warned that "The history of these derbies means we will have to have a significant policing operation both at Deepdale and Bloomfield Road." This led to the police making plans for "significant operations" at the two matches involving the clubs. In November 2007 Blackpool police warned football hooligans not to attend the match in Preston on 8 December 2007. The Blackpool Gazette reported on 17 November 2007, how comments on a message board used by the Blackpool Muckers hooligan firm claimed that Blackpool fans were planning to infiltrate the home stands at the Deepdale stadium in Preston, with members of the Preston hooligan firm also posting threats. The match had already been moved forward to a 12:30 pm kick off at the request of the police in an attempt to avoid violence and local pubs told not to open until 12:00 pm and not to serve alcohol until 12:30 pm, the same time as the kick off.
Blackpool won the match 1–0. However, the day saw outbreaks of violence in both Preston and Blackpool. A huge police operation saw 300 police officers on duty outside Deepdale and in Preston city centre while 19 people were arrested. Blackpool fans arriving at Preston railway station went through airport-style security scanners to check for potential weapons. Blackpool hooligans went on a rampage smashing windows and ripping seats out of specially chartered buses laid on to transport them from the railway station to Deepdale, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. Nine people were arrested. Later that same day, a group of about 30 Preston hooligans attacked a pub in Blackpool in "revenge" throwing bins and bottles at the pub while staff and customers were inside.
The return fixture on 15 March 2008 at Bloomfield Road, was marred by racist and homophobic chanting. Nine Blackpool fans were immediately banned from the stadium for twelve months. Two fans were arrested at the match on suspicion of racial disorder. Blackpool F.C. and the police said they would be investigating whether to ban any additional fans. Some Preston fans were accused of homophobic chants and some Blackpool fans accused of racist chants. The Football Association stated that they were awaiting the Referees report before making a decision about whether to take any action.
Three Blackpool fans were arrested at Deepdale on 13 February 2010, when two flares were lit on the Kop during the 0–0 draw.
While Blackpool fans travelled to Wembley for their 2010 Championship play-off Final with Cardiff City on 22 May 2010, Preston fans hung a banner over a flyover on the M55 saying "Forever In Our Shadow". Then on 7 May 2011, a plane flew twice over Deepdale with trailing banners taunting Preston for their relegation from The Championship. The aircraft trailed two banners over the stadium reading: "Poor Lttle Preston Enjoy League One" and "We Are Superior, Love Blackpool FC." Preston manager Phil Brown called the stunt "distasteful", adding, "if I had a gun I would have shot the plane down". The club however reacted by taking the stunt in good humour issuing a statement saying: "We can see the funny side of the joke and accept that with any setback you will always have opposition supporters ready to poke fun."
Three days later on 12 May, in an episode of the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown, the conundrum 'PNECRISIS' appeared at the show's conclusion, a deliberate reference put in by the show's producer, Damian Eadie, a lifelong Blackpool fan.
By contrast to the violence that sometimes surrounds the West Lancashire derby, fans of both clubs have joined together to raise money for local charities. In March 2007, Blackpool and Preston fans joined together for a seventeen-mile sponsored bicycle ride between Deepdale and Bloomfield Road in aid of the Brian House Children's Hospice in Bispham, Blackpool, and Derian House Children's Hospice in Chorley. Dubbed as "To Hell and Back", about 140 cyclists took part.
Read more about this topic: West Lancashire Derby
Famous quotes containing the word supporters:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The opposition is indispensable. A good statesman, like any other sensible human being, always learns more from his opponents than from his fervent supporters. For his supporters will push him to disaster unless his opponents show him where the dangers are. So if he is wise he will often pray to be delivered from his friends, because they will ruin him. But though it hurts, he ought also to pray never to be left without opponents; for they keep him on the path of reason and good sense.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“His [O.J. Simpson’s] supporters lined the freeway to cheer him on Friday and commentators talked about his tragedy. Did those people see the photographs of the crime scene and the great blackening pools of blood seeping into the sidewalk? Did battered women watch all this on television and realize more vividly than ever before that their lives were cheap and their pain inconsequential?”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)