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Preston North End: The Glory Years Remembered (Heroes of Winter)
 
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Preston North End: The Glory Years Remembered (Heroes of Winter) (Hardcover)

by Michael Prestage (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Breedon Books Publishing Co Ltd (Sep 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1859831990
  • ISBN-13: 978-1859831991
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,929,822 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

HEROES OF WINTER series looks at teams that made their mark in the golden era of football. Drawing on the personal testimony of players and fans, as well as newspaper reports, this volume relives the key matches, moments and personalities of the 1950s when Preston North End returned to the top flight after a short spell in the Second Division.


From the Publisher

Synopsis
THE post-war years were the halcyon days of English football as crowds flocked to grounds across the country in numbers never seen before or since. After the hardships and austerity of World War Two, football provided the main leisure pursuit for the masses. In a new series of books Heroes of Winter looks at the teams that made an indelible mark in this era.

After a short spell in the Second Division, Preston North End returned to the top flight in 1950-51 to become a major power throughout the decade. The undoubted star was Tom Finney whose footballing genius frequently saw him top polls as England’s greatest footballer. Helped by such an inspiring figure, Preston reached heights not seen throughout the rest of the century. Drawing on the personal testimony of players and fans, as well as newspaper reports, the book relives the key matches, moments and personalities from a period that yielded two FA Cup Finals and saw Preston twice runners-up for the League Championship.

Heroes of Winter – Preston North End makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the fortunes of this grand old club.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Account of a Proud Team, 10 Jul 2006
By Andrew Walker "andrewwalker66" (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is a history of Preston North End in the years from 1946-7 through to the end of 1963-4. It take a chronological approach to the material, devoting one chapter to the most remarkable seasons but otherwise covering two or three seasons at a go.

Mike Prestage has produced a highly readable, entertaining and informative account. Real pluses for me were the comments from ex-players and interviews with fans, giving good insights into what the times were like in terms of attitudes, pay and the way the game was played. Prestage gets a really good balance between letting participants tell the stoory in their own words and filling in the gaps with his own well-informed and clearly written accounts. I enjoyed the quick sketches of the players he provides as they passed through the team and while many football fans would say Preston were a one-man team this book does a good job of fully acknowledging Tom Finney's role while giving others their credit as well, something I am sure Sir Tom would appreciate

A small quibble is that I felt the later seasons were not covered in quite so much depth as the early ones. For example, 1959-60 might be a season no self-respecting Burnley fan wants to read about with neighbour Burnley winning the title; however, it is dismissed in little over a page. In fact, Preston were leading the league just before Christmas, but the author seems determined to see these as seasons of decline and barely even tells you who was in the team.

Preston North End fans with any sense of history will love this book. My only concern is whether it has enough general interest for other readers. It doesn't have a lot on tactics, for example, or use investigative techniques to find out where the gate money went and whether it was truly reinvested. In fairness that is not what it set out to do, and for me its strengths more than offset this.

The bigger problem (and there's a plot-spoiler coming up here so if you don't want to know the score then look away now) is that the most Preston win in this period is the (old) Division Two. They come very close a couple of times and reasonably close a few more, but they get relegated twice as well, so you would need to be interested in an average-to-good team going through the "natural" English life-cycle over nearly two decades. (The title is "Preston North End - the Glory Years" but I would guess most impartial observers would say the glory years must have belonged to the "Invincibles" of the 1880s.) A more "commercial" book might have offset the lack of triumphs on the field by concentrating on the three main characters at the club in this time, Bill Shankly, Tommy Docherty and Tom Finney and I can't quite decide whether I wish the author had done this or not. The book as it is written has integrity and takes the dull seasons with the exciting ones but oh, the anecdotes there must be about these guys!

Overall, though, this is an interesting, well-written, balanced book that a succeeds superbly within the term of reference it sets itself.
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