EVERYBODY knows that Preston are a big club! This is a series of articles written in the run-up to our visit to Deepdale on 26/10/2002.
In February 1999, Preston visited Madejski Stadium for the first time. After a poor first half, the game came to life as it would finish - with a dodgy penalty decision. The excellent Scott Howie stretched to tip the ball away from an onrushing Preston forward who fell over his arm. The referee David Crick chose to ignore the fact that Howie had taken the ball and awarded a penalty. Fortunately for us, Kurt Nogan was given the responsibility and messed up big style, with a shot that was more like a backpass and easy for Howie to save.
Darren Caskey made Preston pay by giving us the lead with a fantastic free-kick, the ball hitting the top corner of the goal with the visiting goalkeeper rooted to the spot. The traditional (for that season) late equaliser came with ten minutes left after constant pressure on our goal, but it was not to cost us two points on this occasion. With time running out, Caskey burst into the box and was brought down. The referee gave a penalty - it may have been controversial, but only justice after the earlier decision. Tony Thorpe scored his only Reading goal from the spot-kick to secure a 2-1 win.
After the match one of the Preston players kicked in the referee's dressing-room door. As one of the local papers said the following week, "We don't know who it was, but it can't have been Kurt Nogan because he hadn't managed to get anything on target all day!"
In June 1999, Preston decided to break their club transfer record by purchasing Nicky Forster for £650,000 from Birmingham City. They agreed terms with the player and his club, he passed a medical and then went to the area to look for somewhere to live. In fact, the deal was so close to completion that you can still find articles on the web describing the transfer as actually having happened. However, the day after his trip to the North-West the deal was off and instead Nicky signed for Reading. The Preston manager David Moyes blamed the local paper whilst Preston fans tended to point at Forster's agent, Eric Hall. That much is fact, so let's irresponsibly speculate on the rest - Nicky and his partner travelled up to Preston, she said, "There's no way we're moving here", he agreed, and the deal was off. Of course Preston had not heard the last of him.
Then early in 2000, Reading were closing in on the signing of Martin Butler. It seems that the only remaining snag was that Cambridge United weren't going to let him go until they were knocked out of the FA Cup. After a good run (typical!), they finally lost at home to Bolton Wanderers in round five at the end of January so the sale could proceed. At this late stage, Preston North End decided that they quite fancied him as well, so they also put in a bid. Martin reportedly (but not too surprisingly) chose not to speak to any other club and joined Reading. As is the way of these things, he now looked forward to making his Reading debut at Deepdale.
Before the Preston North End v Reading game in February 2000 I was fortunately in my seat early. Just after 2pm, our goalkeepers - Scott Howie, Peter van der Kwaak and (along for the experience) Shaun Allaway - came out to warm up. They went to the far end of the ground. Several stewards came onto the pitch and tried to tell them they were in the wrong half of the pitch but they stayed put. Next the Preston keepers came out and went to the same end despite the fact that we were already in occupation. At this point Howie was in the goalmouth taking crosses whilst the Preston keepers tried to disrupt the warm-up by firing shots in his direction. Then the rest of the Preston team came out to warm up and also went to the far end.
A few minutes later, Mad Dog (Martin Allen, as if you didn't know) led our outfield players on to the pitch, and they also went to the same end! The Preston players were jogging across the pitch so he had ours running lengthwise to get in the way. Apart from the 35-odd players and coaches, yet more people now came on to the pitch at that end. At first it was a Preston blazer-type who tried to intervene, but he was just ignored. Later a senior policeman (or perhaps that should be tame copper) strode onto the pitch towards Mad Dog and then quickly off, probably after having been forcibly reminded that there were no laws being broken and so it was no concern of his. Meanwhile the Preston stewards and the fans behind the goal were both retaining any of Howie's practice balls that went astray. So that he could continue warming up he pinched some of the Preston ones! After about ten minutes of this, the Reading outfield players jogged down to our end, receiving a rapturous ovation from the travelling fans. Soon after, our three keepers had to follow for the simple reason that they had run out of footballs.
Did this affect the home crowd? Well, not that I could see - in fact, I doubt of most of them realised it took place. Did it affect the home players? I doubt it very much. Did the referee or other officials take any action? No. Did the police, stewards and other Preston employees go ballistic? Yes, but I can't see what it had to do with them. Did the Lancashire Evening Post spot a story? Yes indeed.
Its important to remember that when we played at Deepdale in February 2000, Reading were near the bottom of the table, thanks to the incompetence of Tommy Burns and a poor start to Alan Pardew's managerial career. It looked as though the arrival of Martin Allen as assistant might have sparked a revival, with a win in our previous game. Preston on the other hand needed a point to go top of the table.
From the start of the game, you probably wouldn't have been to tell that, though, as the teams appeared evenly matched. Had the referee, Scott Mathieson, sent off Sean Gregan for either of the red card offences he committed in the first 15 minutes, we would have had a clear advantage. Even so, we managed to get the lead through a cracker of a goal from Nicky Forster, and should have had a second just before half-time when Darren Caskey took too long to get a simple shot in on goal
Preston improved in the second half and took the lead with two goals in quick succession. The Reading fans, having needed a stern shouting-to from Mad Dog just after the interval before the fourth official shepherded him back to the dug-out, were able to celebrate when Martin Butler headed home an equaliser shortly after. Peter Grant missed a golden opportunity to win the game in the last few minutes, shooting tamely at the keeper after a great run into the right position, but overall we were happy with a point.
But things didn't end there - the Lancashire Evening Post (LEP) ran a series of articles and editorial comment about the game accusing Reading of gamesmanship before the match. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, Reading fans were able to fight back with a series of e-mails which the LEP also printed. Because I lived on the edge of the LEP catchment area at the time, I was able to buy the paper as well and see a few extra articles that weren't published on the LEP website.
Preston North End themselves claimed to have reported Reading to the Football League but this was obviously a lie in order to try to deflect attention from their own failings. About a month after the supposed reporting, there was another newspaper article where they demanded to know why no action had been taken. After that, the matter seems to have been quietly dropped.
For a complete rundown of all these newspaper articles, click here.
That page also includes some comments by Reading fans, which come
from the HNA? messageboard and the Royalmail mailing list. You
can join either of those by following the links on the internet links page of this
site.
In one sense, Preston had the next laugh. They were promoted at the end of that season, whilst it took us two years to join them in Division 1. A quick look at the league table will tell you who is going to have the last laugh, and confirm that Nicky Forster and Martin Butler made the right decisions when they decided to join the super Royals rather than the forces of darkness.
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