Match Preview
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Sunday
4th May, 2003 Carrow Road (1.30pm)
LWDLD -Form- WLWLW Last Meeting @ Carrow Road: Norwich City 3 Preston 0 (Mulryne, Roberts, 1.o.g) Last Meeting @ Deepdale : Preston 1 Norwich 2 (Nielsen, McVeigh) Possible
Squads: Norwich City: Green, Nedergaard, Mackay, Kenton, Drury, Holt, McVeigh, Roberts, Healy, Abbey, Easton, Fleming, Rivers, Sinclair, Crichton (GK), Emblen, Russell, Mulryne, Shackell, Jarvis. Preston: Gould, Alexander, Jackson, Lucketti, Mears, McKenna, Etuhu, O'Neil, Lewis, Cresswell, Abbott. Your Guide to Preston After a couple of successful
seasons in Division One, This season Preston tipped as play off contenders by
critics (most notably Mark Lawrenson – a fan!). However to some this season
has been a disappointment. The start of the season was were their problems lay.
With a new manager (Craig Brown) the team tried to adapt to his way of playing
and as a result struggled. At Christmas their were in the lower reaches of the
division. However since then they have started to pick up their results and are
on a good run which has seen them rise to 11th place. When, last season Everton
came in for manager David Moyes, Craig Brown came in to succeed him. The
ex-Scotland international coach was the high profile manger which Preston
wanted. His presence as manager has seen a shake up of the squad and new players
coming in. The majority of these are Scottish players. Players include Jonathan
Gould and Simon Lynch from Celtic. Tepi Moilanen, their former number one keeper
has gone out on loan to Hearts, Healy has of course joined the Canaries on loan
and Ricardo Fuller has been out for the season. The partnership of Jon Macken
and David Healy of last season has been split up with Macken going to Manchester
City. This has seen Healy falling down in the pecking order and the emergence of
the English born Poland under 21 international; Pawel Abbott has shaken it up
even more. Next season Preston should
come into their own again, after taking a year to get used to Browns new style
of play. Preston don’t have a bad squad with Eddie Lewis, Graham Alexander,
Dickson Etuhu, George Koumantarakis and Richard Cresswell all plying their trade
at the club. They have shown in the past few seasons that they can more than
equal any team in this division. The season before last they actually got to
Cardiff in the Play Off final only to lose to Bolton. Last season saw a 4-0 reverse
at Deepdale which saw Prestons attacking play at its best. Jon Macken was
outstanding and ran rings around our defence. At home last season the Canaries
won 3-0, with goals from Roberts, Mulryne and a comical own goal completed the
scoring. Earlier this season City travelled to Deepdale to gain some revenge on
last seasons humiliating result. They came out 2-1 winners with David Nielsen
and Paul McVeigh scoring. Last weekend Preston came out 1-0 winners against
Bradford at home, Pawel Abbott the scorer there. On their travels, Preston have
struggled. They have won five, drawn six and lost eleven. After last weekends 1-1 draw with Leicester Norwich have shown that they can play a good game of football, the only problem being consistency, that old bugbear - hopefully it can be sorted out next season. Nigel Worthington hinted that the team we saw would be people we would see at the club next season. Jason Shackell in particular looked promising and didn’t look out of place at all. Jarvis and Henderson also looked good. Expect the team on Sunday to also look like this as Worthington sorts out his team for next season. Players who are leaving at the end of the season won’t play, Llewellyn, Heckingbottom, Emblen, Nedergaard and Kenton for example. Their Manager Craig Brown was appointed as the manager of Preston North End on April 29 2002. The former Scotland boss succeeds David Moyes in the post at Deepdale after accepting the opportunity to take up his first managerial position in English football at the age of 61. Craig Brown's coaching career began at Motherwell, where he worked as the assistant manager having seen his playing days ended prematurely by injury. As a player, Brown had won schoolboy, youth and junior international honours in his teenage years before signing for Rangers in 1959. He moved onto Dundee after three years at Ibrox and won a league championship medal in first season with the Dens Park club, where he stayed for six years. Craig's final move was to Falkirk, where he spent three successful seasons before calling time on his playing career after five operations on his knee. After working with Motherwell, Craig became the part-time manager of Clyde, where he spent ten seasons - winning the Second Division championship in that time - whilst also working as a primary school head teacher then a lecturer in primary education at Craigie College. Having been asked to join Scotland's coaching team for the 1986 World Cup by caretaker national boss Alex Ferguson, Craig was appointed as the full-time assistant national coach to Andy Roxburgh, who was named as the permanent successor to the late Jock Stein. In 1989 Craig coached Scotland's Under-16s to the final of the world championship and three years later coached the under-21s to the semi-finals of the UEFA championship. He went on to replace Roxburgh in November as the manager of the full national team having been caretaker manager for two months, with responsibility for games against Italy and Malta. Qualifying for Euro 96, the Scots managed to beat Switzerland at Villa Park in the tournament itself but were denied a place in the knockout stages by Patrick Kluivert's 'consolation' goal for Holland against England. Brown also took Scotland to the 1998 World Cup finals after a 2-0 win over Latvia at Celtic Park ensured their passage to France in 1997. Before the tournament, Craig signed a new contract which was due to take him up to April 2002. Scotland failed to progress from the first stage at the French World Cup after losing 3-0 to Morocco however. Craig Brown was awarded the CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1999. He was disappointed not to take his side to the finals of the Euro 2000 tournament having been drawn against Kevin Keegan's England side in a two-legged play off, despite beating the English at Wembley thanks to a solitary Don Hutchison goal. He continued in the post as attempted to take Scotland to the 2002 World Cup finals but resigned on October 6 2001 after failing to achieve this aim despite a 2-1 win over Latvia in the Scots' final qualifying match. Craig then moved into a position at the Scottish Football Association in which he described himself as 'Scotland's Howard Wilkinson' and turned down an offer to become the national coach of Saudi Arabia. Although he was proud to continue working for his country and helping to develop Scottish football and talent, Craig could not resist the opportunity to return to club football and embark on a career in the English game when approached by First Division club Preston, who had recently lost their manager - Brown's countryman, David Moyes - to Premiership side Everton. Brown joins the throng of well-renowned Scottish managers who have successfully plied their trade south of the border and will be hoping he can emulate the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, George Graham and Graeme Souness as he looks to take Preston into the top flight. One To Watch Eddie
Lewis
The talented midfielder has been found on the left of midfield and in the heart of the pitch this season and has chipped in with his share of goals, six to be exact. He is one of those players which keep on going and won’t give up. He is strong in the tackle and decisive in his distribution. A player to keep your eye on for sure.
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Norwich City
v. Preston North End 
