Deepdale

Saturday, 18 April 2009

Preston North End 6-0 Cardiff City

Birdseye view of Deepdale (Live Search Maps)

Ratings

Overall Ground Quality : 8/10

Ease of getting there : 6/10

Atmosphere : 8/10

Programme : 8/10

View of Action : 8/10

Quality of the game : 10/10

The "football" feeling : 9/10

Chances of coming here for a random game : 5/10

Legroom : 7/10

Surrounding area : 5/10

Overall : 74/100

Programme cover

Sir Tom Finney Way

Adrian next to the Tom Finney statue

Sir Tom Finney stand

Alan Kelly Town End

Invincibles Pavilion

Bill Shankly Kop (Partly Away area)

National Football Museum at Deepdale

Welcome to Deepdale!

Sir Tom Finney stand

Alan Kelly Town End

Bill Shankly Kop (Partly Away area)

Invincibles Pavilion

Time for Kick off

The towering Floodlights

Preston North End 6-0 Cardiff City

Deepdale is home of Preston North End (The Lilywhites). Adrian and I (Ross) set of from Tamworth at 8:30am and after an hour we reached the railway town of Crewe to visit Gresty Road. We then continued our journey up the M6 and arriving at Preston at 10:50. After purchasing our tickets, parking the car on St Thomas Road and take a few pictures of the outside of Deepdale, we went to a local Sainsburys for our pre-match meal before taking a visit to the National Football Museum at Deepdale. We both went to the museum during our visit in the summer. We suggest you spend 1-2 hours in the museum. The museum is free to enter with a cafe and shop. At twenty-five past two, we entered the stadium for the 3 o’clock kick off. This was game of the day. In the first half, Neil Mellor claimed both goal and a Ross McCormack penalty save on the 45’. The second half saw four more goals go past former Leicester City loanee Stuart Taylor between the sticks for Cardiff City. Goals by Jon Parkin, Chris Brown, Lee Williamson and a diving own goal by Mark Kennedy. The ground has been totally redeveloped with 4 stands. In 1995, the old West stand was replaced with £4.4 million Sir Tom Finney stand which took about a year to build and holds 8,100 supporters. Two years later saw the Bill Shankly Kop built. The stand holds 5,000 spectators and over half is for away supporters. In October 2001, the Alan Kelly stand was completed at the other end of the ground. In 2004, ‘The Splash’ statue was built outside the National Football Museum honouring Mr PNE, Sir Tom Finney. The design was based on Finney playing at a flooded Stamford Bridge in 1954. 2007 saw the end of an era for the Old Pavilion stand and the start of a new for the Invincibles Pavilion. The Invincibles Pavilion is a much smaller stand due to the road being behind it but the roof starts at the same height as the other three stands which means it slopes more. Shortly after the construction saw the ground personalised with an LCD Screen in the Bill Shankly Kop and a clock fitted onto the Invincibles Pavilion with also the words ‘Deepdale’ and ‘Preston’ on either side of the clock. Overall our visit to Deepdale was very good and I (Ross) think that it’s a brilliant Championship ground.