The Championship Goodbye Series Part 1 (Moyes- Simpson)

The "Championship Goodbye" post (below), I can take no credit for. That credit goes to themaclad, a well written and thought provoking series of articles written just before the end of the season which deserves to be a permanent stay on our board.
Whoever you support, please join in with your thoughts and enjoy our forum.
.................................................. .................................................. ..........................................

The Championship Goodbye Post

After 11 years Preston's championship run comes to an end sometime around 2.30pm on 7/5/2011.
It began on a blistering hot Saturday afternoon in Grimsby with a 2-1, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster here are some of my memories. Please feel free to add your own comments.

(Moyes era)

Dreamland, back at a level we hadn't played at for years, had a forward line that dreams were made of Macken, McBride and Healy, astonishingly made the final of the play offs.
The Town End saw its last match against Wolves winning 2-0, Lonners played in the televised win over Watford after Lucas pulled up injured in the warm ups.
The two playoff games against Brum, lost the first 1-0 slightly lucky to be still in the tie. However the return was to be a night to be remembered.
Healy blasted us back into the tie, Alexander missed a penalty and they equalised through I think it was Marcello(may be wrong on that though) Then came the match turning moment. Papa Lazarou beat the entire North End side took the ball round Lucas and slotted the ball towards goal. It travels along the goal line missing the post and crucially doesn't go out of play, within 30 seconds Gregan, Macken and Shabba combined for Shabba from an offside position to put the ball into the Brum net.
Battered Brum in extra time and then penalties.
Trevor throws his toys out of the pram demanding the penalties be taken at the building site end. He doesn't get his wish, Lucas makes a couple of great saves McKenna finishes them off and we are Cardiff bound.
The final well that was just a good day out never expected them to win was proved right as Bolton cruised to an easy victory.
Always knew that Moyes would eventually depart and when Walter Smith got potted at Everton the writing was on the wall.
That season didn't start well, a brawl in a club between Teppi and McKenna which involved the boss as well followed by a 5-0 stuffing at Gillingham, however things started to improve and in my view one of the most complete 45 minutes I've ever seen a team in white play.
Norwich were the unlucky side as we absolutely destroyed them being 4 up at half time, absolute perfection. All too soon Moyes was gone, Kelham was caretaker and we narrowly failed to make the play offs.
.................................................. .................................................. .......................................
(Craig Brown era)
Hard to sum up the tenure of Mr Brown, personally thought some of the football played left absolutely no imprint on my memory apart from the 5-3 win against Burnley when the man from Jamaican ran the boys from the Turf ragged scoring a fantastic hat trick and made David May look like a tit when scoring one of his goals.
In the Carling Cup we got to lose at Villa Park by 5 and the FA Cup saw us lose to our next but one manager's side Rochdale In that game Rob Kozluk played his one and only game also Brian O'Neill made his debut.
He tried to play international type football with Championship players sadly it didn't work.
On the plus side he had a good eye for decent players Fuller and Lewis however he did also sign Andy Smith, who could fail to forget the man with a dead skunk on his head debut.
Came on as a sub, was alleged to be a forward but went to left back and promptly gave away a penalty against Watford luckily Lonners saved it.
We finished nearer the bottom than the top and his 2nd season didn't last long, an early defeat at home to Crystal Palace (Skora being sent off) by the time we lost at Brighton the writing was on the wall for Brown and he was replaced by William McIntosh Davies.

.................................................. .................................................. ............................................

( Davies era)
The little man has split opinions since he walked out however whilst manager he won 44% of his games which has to be said is not a bad record at all.
Started well with a 3-0 win against Rotherham had a bit of a blip with a 5 goal drubbing by the pies at the JJB however started to put in some good performances which got even better the Hammers were beaten twice(remember the reports of the match at Upton Park described it as rancid)
Started to bring in useful players such as Ageymang and the Sedgewick, however the trump card was bought in January in the shape of one David Nugent, little did we know that a legend had been brought to the club.
In little less than a season the man from North of the border had turned us in to a very hard to beat outfit and hardly anybody was beating us.
Play offs arrived Nugent and a faff by Lee Camp gave us a 2 goal lead, the only way Derby were ever going to score was with a penalty which they duly got in the 2nd leg poor decision by the ref, didn't matter the diving Pole Rasiak hit the post with it. Cardiff bound again understandable joy except Rasiak who left the pitch in tears.
So it was Hammers, the game was poor two on the day not so good teams.
Zamora shinned the winner in after both Claude and Matty Hill slipped on the poor surface.
Billy tarted himself round the country during the close season but decided to stay and off we went again.
An unbeaten run of 20 plus games was ended by Reading in mid March but play offs were achieved again this time the semi opponents were Leeds.
The first leg was away and super Brett gave us the lead before a late equalizer pinned us back(was it Eddie Lewis?)
However Billy's over the top celebration and the Job done comments did worry me.
Sure enough this remarked fired up the Yorkshire outfit and they basically kicked us off the field. Ormerod's leg was broken by a shocker of a tackle by Douglas which set the tone for the night.
We were not helped by the lights failing at half time which led to a 45 minute delay and also ended Marcus Stewart's PNE career.
Two goals and two sendings off form the Yorkshire side as they went through to lose to Watford.
For Billy the writing was on the wall literally and he got a helicopter ride to Pride Park.
Next in the hot seat Paul Simpson

.................................................. .................................................. ....................................

(Simpson era)
To my way of thinking Simpson was slightly unlucky however as events unfolded he was the architect of his own downfall.
Arrived from Carlisle and I for one was delighted with the appointment.
Was dealt a cruel blow when on the 2nd day of pre season training all Billy's backroom staff did the dirty and left.
Made some good pre season signings Ledge, Chilvers, Carter and Nicholls
An early League Cup defeat at Port Vale gave Simmo an opportunity to blast the players(a sign of things to come) however results started to pick up Sunderland where despatched with ease and Leeds were absolutely hammered one fine Tuesday night 4-1.
Then glory be we where top of the division, then the wheels started to come off.
a 2-0 defeat at Luton and the first appearance of cracks in the dressing room, Alexander blasted certain elements of the dressing room and was swiftly sold to Burnley.
Come Christmas time Sunderland were defeated at the Stadium of Light by a wonder goal from the Nuge and we ended the year 2nd?!
A win at Hillsborough and things were looking OK.
Then the end of season run in, a hapless display at Cardiff in a televised Friday night match and another televised match with Leeds led me to fear to worst, as the teams ran out noticed that we had no left back and Pavel Pergl was playing, He was the left back.
Leeds won 2-1 Healy scored both goals in the area the left back should have been. Rankine also missed the chance to equalize from an inch but hit the top of the bar.
Lost 8 out the last 10 games and missed out narrowly on the play offs.
This is my view looking back at Simmo's reign that was the season when we should have absolutely p***ed the division but as we now know the manager had lost the dressing room.
Simmo blamed bad apples.
The season after the expectation from most fans were absolute zero, losing to league new boys Morecambe summed the club up.
Results didn't come and by the time we were walloped at Hull time for Simpson was up.