Born in Gateshead on January 6th 1989, he attended Joseph Swan School before being drafted into Newcastle United's Academy where he twice helped the club to the FA Youth Cup semi-finals.

On November 2nd last year Carroll became Newcastle's youngest ever player to play in Europe when he appeared as a late subsitute in a UEFA Cup victory over Palermo, making his debut aged 17 years and 300 days.

Two months later Andy was back in action again when he came on for the last 10 minutes of Newcastle's shock 5-1 home defeat to Birmingham City and he made his Premiership debut coming on for the last three minutes of Newcastle's 1-0 defeat to Wigan.

This year Andy picked up the 'Wor Jackie Milburn Trophy', an award given each year to the rising star of of north east football.

Carroll finally scored his first goal in Newcastle colours when he netted with his left foot in a 2-0 win over Juventus. Carroll had a controversial clash with World Cup winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon during the game, but after the game Buffon was full of praise for the young striker.

"Carroll played like what we call in Italy a paintbrush striker," Buffon said in the Daily Express.

"He was there to add the finishing touch. He played well on his own.

"He will be an asset because he can find the smaller players around him in different ways and has already shown he has great awareness."

Speaking before he allowed young Carroll to move to Deepdale, former PNE terrace hero and current Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce said: "I have heard so much about Andy from other managers because they keep ringing up and asking for him on loan, which rather excited me about the potential of the young man."

"There is very good potential there. Whether it's going to be in key areas in the Premier League this year, I'll decide that further down the line as the season comes closer."

"He can play a part now because Mark Viduka is away, but when Mark comes back, I will have a full assessment and there might be the possibility that one of those managers may get lucky."

"I may loan him out if I feel that's the right thing for Andy and the right thing for us."

"Or if he carries on improving and showing the sort of potential he's got, I might decide to keep him here and use him when I feel necessary to give him some Premier League experience."

It is thought that Carroll chose a move to Preston over clubs such as Sheffield Wednesday, Hull City and Scottish giants Celtic in order to secure first team football.