Preston North End entertain Cardiff City for the 47th time in the league at Deepdale on Saturday in what is the club’s 4,999th EFL fixture.
The Lilywhites lead the head-to-head with 36 wins to the visitors’ 34 in the 93 games played both home and away since out first game back in February 1922.
There have been some memorable games against the Bluebirds, particularly in recent years, none more so that on 18th April 2009.
PNE secured their best win for eight years that afternoon, thrashing the Welshmen 6-0. Neil Mellor, Jon Parkin, an own goal by Mark Kennedy, two from Chris Brown and Lee Williamson completed the rout. Andrew Lonergan saved a penalty from Ross McCormack.
It was by no means our biggest win at Deepdale against the side from the Welsh capital, however, with a 7-0 success in December 1930, a 7-1 win in September 1954 and a 9-0 on 7th May 1966!
The match saw two of our players scoring a hat-trick, Brian Godfrey (ironically, a Welshman!) and Ernie Hannigan (a Scot) on the final day of that season.
But, we have looked back to a different big home win this time, one that featured a stunning goal from a current PNE striker… David Nugent.
It was the 16th April 2005 and the now top scorer in the Championship’s history, grabbed a brace to keep North End’s Play-Off momentum going, while dropping Cardiff back into relegation danger.
Cardiff defended well, but were finally breached in the 67th minute, when Richard Cresswell's cross was only half-cleared to Nugent. The 19-year-old lashed his shot into the top corner and, soon after, rushed onto another Cresswell cross to guide the ball inside the right post.
Cresswell rounded things off by robbing Chris Barker and coolly slotting home, leaving manager Billy Davies a happy man: “Cardiff had a lot of energy and they made it difficult for us in the first half.
“The most important thing is we stuck at it and we started to play our own game in the second half, creating chances and we increased the tempo a little bit. I felt we would get chances and, with the players we've got in our team, we're always capable of scoring goals.”