PRESTON? GIVE ALEX BACKING TO SHOOT FOR TOP

PRESTON North End are a club I have a great deal of affection for. I was there for a lot of years as a player and coach. I was caretaker-manager for a short while.

I still remember playing on the plastic pitch all those years ago and I even enjoyed that despite the burns.

They had a great spell in the previous decade under several good managers. David Moyes, Billy Davies and Alan Irvine all got them into the play-offs.

But they never got promoted - my Bolton side beat Moysey’s Preston in the final in 2001 - and they haven’t really come close again since.

It would be nice to see that change. Last weekend’s victory over Brentford sent the Lilywhites fifth in the Championship and made it four straight wins at Deepdale.

They’ve got a good experienced manager in Alex Neil. He had that useful experience with Norwich City, where he got them up, got relegated and then got sacked after a difficult return to the Championship.

He’s clearly drawing on all of that at Preston, who are probably overachieving given the budget at their disposal.

If the board at Preston give him a bit of backing in January, I see no reason why they can’t be in with a shout at the end of the season.

Personally, I’d love to see another small town club from Lancashire mixing it up there. At one stage in my career with Bolton, the north west was the envy of the country.

Not only did you have Liverpool, Everton, and the two Manchester clubs in the Premier League, you also had Wigan, Bolton, Blackpool, Burnley and Blackburn plying their trade in the top flight.

Nearly 50 per cent of the Premier League were all playing in a radius of 45 or 50 miles. Now, it’s down to 25 per cent. It would be great to see Preston bolster those numbers, and earn the millions of pounds that would transform the club.