One of the oldest rivalries in league football is continued today as we welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to Deepdale for the 58th time in the EFL.
Our shared history includes facing each other at every level of the league, as well as the 1889 FA Cup Final which we won 3-0 to complete the double.
Overall, league honours have been largely in our favour here, with 28 wins to 14 defeats, but 15 draws means Wolves have a decent record to defend today.
Twenty-one of our home victories came in the first 29 meetings and since the resumption of football in 1946, results have been much more even, with eight wins and ten defeats for North End.
We have only ever had two 5-4 victories at home in the league and both of these came against Wolves, in 1928 and again two years later. We have scored five goals on a further four occasions, whilst Wolves’ most recent win here in 2008 matched their highest winning margin of 3-1 which they have achieved four times.
One of the most notable games in our recent shared history was the thrilling 3-3 draw on the final day of the 1988/89 season. Wolves were celebrating successive championships and recovered from Tony Ellis’s 22nd minute opener to establish a 3-1 lead. The introduction of Tony Philliskirk saw North End on all-out attack and two goals in the final two minutes, from Ellis and Mark Patterson, saw honours shared in an exciting end to the campaign.
Leon and Nicky Clarke, Craig Davies, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Neill Collins are all players who have passed briefly through the doors of Deepdale and Molineux.
On This Date
It is ten years since we last played a home game on this date and the TV cameras were here to see us lose 1-0 to then Premier League Portmouth in the FA Cup Fifth Round, thanks to an unfortunate last minute deflection by Darren Carter and a David James penalty save from Simon Whaley – Pompey going on to win the Cup Final that season.
Two former players, one from the 60s and one from the 70s, were born on this date in 1944, Frank Lee and Neil Young.
Right winger Frank made his debut in 1964 having come through the youth ranks and played 171 times before moving to Southport in 1970.
Neil had scored the only goal in Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat of Leicester in the 1969 FA Cup final and joined us three years later in a joint deal with Dave Connor. 72 games and 17 goals followed in the next two years before a brief spell with Rochdale ended his league career.
1932 found us playing a second division fixture in Bradford but not at Valley Parade; instead we were making one of our ten visits to the Park Avenue home of Bradford City’s rivals Bradford Park Avenue. We recorded a 5-1 win that day at a ground we only managed to win at three times in all. Although now derelict, the Park Avenue ground is still in existence today, despite the football club falling out of the Football League in the 1970s and disappearing completely a few years later.
It was one of a few venues to be shared by football and cricket clubs, although each had their own separate playing area although there was a double sided stand that faced both the football field and the cricket ground. Headingley has a similar arrangement between the cricket and rugby clubs.
Last Five Games At Deepdale
Preston North End 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0, 19th November 2016
Preston North End 1 (Johnson) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 (McDonald), 26th September 2015
Preston North End 0 Wolverhampton Wanderers 0, 3rd August 2013
Preston North End 1 (Mellor (pen)) Wolverhampton Wanderers 3 (Iwelumo, 3 (1 pen)), 20th September 2008
Preston North End 2 (Davidson (pen), Whaley) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 (Keogh), 11th March 2008