Sat in the dilapidated West Stand he watched a tame 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in April 1974, and England's World Cup winner Nobby Stiles played No.4 for Preston.

Like most fans with a vast and enduring passion for their football club, he loves to reminisce.

When you ask him about those precious Deepdale moments, his favourite player, those best-loved matches, Penrose delves deep into the Deepdale archives.

"It has to be John Thomas, the season Preston got promoted from the old Fourth Division in 1987," said Penrose.

"It was a wonderful year and a very poignant one too, I think.

"We'd gone cap-in-hand to the Football League Re-election Committee 12 months earlier, and the club was fighting to stay alive.

"It was a shocking season, the worst one in Preston North End's history.

"We played Scunthorpe on a Tuesday afternoon because Deepdale had no floodlights, the average home attendance was 3,500 and three managers, Tommy Booth, Brian Kidd and Jonathan Clark came and went in four months. One game that really stands out was Burnley away.

"It was a 1-1 draw. Gary Brazil scored a penalty, and the gate was 3,700 with 1,000 from Preston.

"Imagine...less than 4,000 for a Lancashire derby – unbelievable.

"I really don't know how we survived that season.

"A year later, though, there were 17,000 at Deepdale against Northampton Town on a Friday night and I was packed into the West Stand paddock.

Rushed

"We were promoted at Leyton Orient, a wonderful occasion, and four days later we beat Tranmere 2-0 at Deepdale.

"Gary Brazil and JT scored. I remember JT's goal like it was yesterday, chipping it over the goalkeeper from the edge of the penalty box.

"The fans rushed on to the plastic pitch at the end and chaired John Thomas off above their heads.

"It is remarkable to see how far we've come since then, though.
"Deepdale has been completely rebuilt and there's a lot of positives now. I saw the new Invincibles Pavilion this week, and the stadium looked wonderful. It is a remarkable transformation, and I felt so proud to be a Preston North End supporter."

His great faith in the club he has supported for 30 years has been tested to the full, but it has never wavered.

A bit like his brilliant business sense, Penrose has always enjoyed a mighty challenge, and the bigger the better.

Last year Sportech, the company he runs as chief executive – and this season the sponsor of the Invincibles Pavilion – took over the
running of the football pools, which were re-launched today.

Like a once-great club which has dropped down the football pyramid, it would be all too easy to think the odds are stacked against the pools in this era of internet betting.

In the post-war years, the pools became associated with rising levels of affluence and consumer abandon, no more so then when Viv Nicholson
famously pledged to 'spend, spend, spend' the £152,319 that her husband won on the game in 1961.

But while the pools increased its jackpot to more than £2.25m in 1994, it was soon eclipsed – in terms of financial muscle – by the lottery.

In 1994, just before the arrival of the National Lottery, 10 million people – one in three of the adult population – were filling in the coupon every week.

Two weeks after the Lotto launch, more than two million players had deserted.

This continued to the point which, at the start of this year, there were little more than 500,000 weekly participants.

The lottery had ripped the heart out of the pools, robbing it of much of its business.

"A lot of people ask whether the pools is still going," added Ian.

"Hearing that is a disapppointment, but it shows the opportunity we have to revive the pools and I think we will.

"The pools is a classic, iconic business, and the oldest football gaming business in the world.

"It is almost part of the social fabric of the country and it touched the lives of so many in the country.

"Everybody can remember their father or grandfather filling in the pools coupon.

"I'd argue with my brother who was going to fill it in first and the pools guy would arrive on a Thursday night to collect the coupon.

"We've all heard the saying, 'When I win the lottery', when 15 years ago it was, 'When I win the pools'.

"We have to try and get that back.

"What we are doing, though, is making the pools easier and more enjoyable to play."

The pools' traditional customer is pushing 60, typically spends about £2 a week and often chooses the same permutations whatever the fixtures.

But his company has its eye on a younger player who, while not a heavy gambler, is more likely to see the game as a test of skill to be played alongside friends and colleagues. More than £3m has been spent on
relaunching the game this summer and its profile has been boosted by a deal with Ladbrokes to distribute the game in 1,700 betting shops.

The business has come a long way since three Manchester men handed out the first Littlewood's pools betting coupons outside Old Trafford in 1923.

The game, which challenged people to predict the results of foootball matches, was far from an overnight success.

It was a huge gamble for John Moores when he decided to buy out his two partners a couple of years later.

His faith in the game's ability to capture the public's imagination and fire the dreams of those playing was eventually vindicated.

But the man who inherited Moores' mantle was faced with some tough decisions and turning around the football pools is the biggest challenge Penrose has taken on.

The business was haemorrhaging cash when he took charge.

Two of its three main activities, the telephone betting operation – Littlewoods Bet Direct – and an interactive gaming service on ITV, had cost the company around £60m in losses. Penrose took swift action.

He sold off Bet Direct and tore up the disastrous contract with ITV, and a number of senior executives left the business.

"When I joined we had £115m debt," he said.

"It was apparent things needed to be sorted out, and quickly.

"It is also a very hard thing in business to tell somebody they haven't got a job anymore.

"The people-side can be really tough, but the action we took was the right action.

"I had to get on with it, and a lot of it was gut instinct."

But it has at least allowed him to return to Preston from where he commutes to Liverpool most days when he is not in London.

Lucky

Being back in his home city certainly agrees with the the former Hutton Grammar School lad after the seven years he spent in London and
Lingfield for his old company, Arena Leisure, which, like Sportech, has Trevor Hemmings as its leading shareholder.

It also affords him the opportunity to watch North End more regularly from his Town End seat.

"It is amazing to be able to pick up the telephone and talk to Trevor because he is a remarkable man," said Ian.

"I've been very lucky to be associated with Trevor him in my career. He is a very giving person."

It is a hectic lifestyle, leaving home at 6am and sometimes not returning until late evening.

"I've so many meetings every week and football is a great ice-breaker," admits Penrose.

"You get the usual Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal stuff, but when when I tell them I support Preston they look at me as if I'm mad. But Preston North End is in my heart."

What is difficult to portray in print is Penrose's warmth and sense of
humour.

He is a great listener too and modest about his achievements but is a great admirer of Deepdale chairman Derek Shaw.

"Derek's done a fantastic job, and his love for Preston shines through," he says.

"It irritates me when I hear people having a go at him, because it doesn't make sense.

"When Derek said he was going to stand down last season there wasn't a big queue outside his office was there?

"Derek, more than anybody, has provided the driving force for the ground redevelopment and has kept Preston on an even keel.

"We are competing against clubs with 25,000 gates, who have superior spending power.

"We have half their crowds and subsequently half their income, so to be operating successfully at this level is a great achievement.

"Certain players encapsulate an era too, and Graham Alexander represented that for me.

"He was a great PNE clubman and I don't know why we let him go to Burnley."

"There is a new Deepdale generation that have never endured the struggle of seeing their side fighting for survival in the basement league.

"All that is only 22 years ago and if you'd told the fans then that they'd have a new stadium and their team would be playing in the Football League's top flight they'd have laughed at you.

"But it has happened, and I think we should be incredibly proud.

"Bryan Gray kick-started it and Derek has carried it on, and together they've both created a lasting legacy at Deepdale.

"Derek's one of Preston's greatest assets, a loyal Preston man, and it will be a proud day on Saturday when they open the Invincibles Pavilion against Crystal Palace.

Real

"There are many occasions when I think back to the bad old days, when perhaps football seemed a bit more real then, stood on the grass bank at Wigan's Springfield Park in the spilling rain, or going to Halifax on a freezing December night.

"The saddest moment for me, though, was losing to West Ham United in the 2005 play-off final at Cardiff.

"There was a great sense that was our time, you know.

"I'm sure every Preston fan thought that too.

"We'd achieved the double over West Ham in the league, but we never turned up at the Millennium Stadium and it was just so sad.

"That moment passed us by, but I just hope that one day this fantastic old club will play in the Premier League. It is certainly in safe hands now."