Preston North End vs Burnley for a FA Cup quarter-final place - surrendering one advantage would be criminal
It's PNE vs Burnley for a place in the FA Cup quarter-final on Saturday
It’s no longer the tune Preston North End walk out to at Deepdale but surely this is the one. What else are we waiting for? This is a football club that, after several stable but similar seasons in a row, desperately needs to feel something.
And with the gap to the Premier League seemingly as seismic as ever, cup competitions - contrary to the general attitude out there towards them - will always offer a team the opportunity to dream. Football isn’t really much fun if you can’t.
The truth is that big days, genuinely big days, do not come around very often in the fairly monotonous life of a PNE supporter. It’s why those magical away wins - especially midweek - and derby day victories carry a greater significance and emotion. Otherwise there aren’t many kicks to get.
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Saturday, while round five, is an occasion though. If it’s not really doing it for you then just step away from the negative cesspit of the sport and look at the fixture ahead. Take yourself back to when the magic of football was at its peak and how this match would’ve made you feel then. Because, if we are honest, that magic does fade through time.
But, just when you are losing faith in it, football can find a way of reminding you why you became obsessed in the first place. That is the potential with this weekend’s Deepdale clash: PNE vs Burnley for a place in the FA Cup quarter-final. If there’s a match this season to park understandable grievances and frustrations with club - which have been written about - it’s probably this one.
This is a stage of a famous competition North End haven’t reached for almost 60 years. Getting there should not be easy and Burnley will undoubtedly be a incredibly tough opponent to beat, just as they were a fortnight ago when the two teams played out a second goalless draw of the season.
A draw is off the cards this time; one must prevail. The Clarets will be favourites and Preston are without some important players. But they have kept Burnley out over 180 minutes and must take confidence from the way they have performed in the two meetings to date with Scott Parker’s team.
Getting last weekend’s dismal display at Coventry City out of the system as quickly as possible will be important for all associated. Fresh bodies and minds by the time the Burnley bus pulls up at Deepdale again, and absolutely everything put into the fixture. There can be no other option.
Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea will not await the winner; the four giants are out. Whoever triumphs at Deepdale could well be the only Championship team left in the competition with Cardiff, Millwall and Plymouth going to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Manchester City, respectively.
North End are capable underdogs - a tag they have embraced before - but cannot do it alone. The sight of a half empty home enclosure and sold out away end will only lift one set of players and they won’t be wearing a white shirt.
Deepdale has been a quiet place in recent years; its ability to come alive will always remain. If there is ever a time for it to find its voice and noise again then it is now. If PNE is a football club - Preston a city - you have any connection with or affinity for, then the time to buy a ticket is now.