Many of today's football Clubs were founded in the 1800's, like ourselves and Scunthorpe United (1899), but the Irons only turned professional as late as 1912.
In those days they were named Scunthorpe & Lindsey United, right up to 1958 when they dropped the "& Linsey" from their title. Scunthorpe had to wait until 1950 before being elected to the league, entering division three north.
Consequently it was as late as 1961 before they first paid a visit to Deepdale. Preston North End had just been relegated from the first division and were struggling to find their feet in the second division. In fact, PNE were lying third off the bottom whilst Scunthorpe were above the likes of Sunderland and Derby County holding fourth spot.
The Irons arrived at Deepdale on 2nd December 1961 full of confidence, with leading goalscorer Barrie Thomas having already bagged an impressive total of 23 goals. Our own leading goalscorer, Alfie Biggs, who eventually managed 22 for the season, just had four goals to his name prior to this game.
PNE: Kelly, Cunningham, Ross, Wylie, Singleton, Smith, Wilson, Biggs, Dawson, Spavin & Thompson.
Scunthorpe: Jones, Horstead, Brownsword, Gibson, Neale, Howells, Godfrey, Lindsey, Thomas, Kaye & Wilson.
This meant that George Ross was marking future North Ender, Brian Godfrey.
Preston had a great start and took the lead as early as the third minute. Peter Thompson, playing wide on the left, laid on a good ball for Alfie Biggs to shoot home with a precise left foot shot, leaving Jones helpless.
With the next goal being so crucial, it was a relief to the home fans that Preston increased their lead two minutes before half-time. A through ball from Alex Dawson, lying deep, allowed Biggs to storm through and score with a low accurate shot.
Within five minutes of the second half Biggs had achieved the hat trick. This time it was a defence splitting pass from young Alan Spavin that found Biggs who gleefully crashed the ball into the roof of the net with a ferocious shot.
Scunthorpe pulled one back on 64 minutes, inevitably through leading goalscorer Thomas, bagging his 24th goal of the season. The visiting sides misery was condemned 12 minutes from the end after Dawson was brought down by Neale in the penalty area. From the resulting penalty, Dawson crashed the ball into the net, giving the keeper no chance to save. A 4-1 win was a great result against the high flying opposition.
It had taken North End seven games prior to this one to score four goals and then they score four in one game!
Ian Rigby
