Blackpool were the April fools on derby day - Preston fan john Smith revelled in the

It was fortunate that our April Fools Day clash against our "friends from the seaside " did not fall into this category as within one hour after the midday cut off point for these type of hoaxes we had raced into a two-goal lead over them ,something which definitely felt very real to me.

The first half was the most enjoyable one I have had in this stadium for many a while as we tore apart our opponents almost from the off.

The game was played in a raucous electric atmosphere and credit must be given to the PNE Online Supporters’ Group who gave up their spare time helping to create this by providing the balloons and flags which added to the spectacle of the occasion.

With it being an almost full house of which the vastly overwhelming majority of fans inside the ground were our own passionate ones reminded me of a Deepdale of past times in the good old days of the play-off chasing days under David Moyes and Billy Davies.

It was a different type of crowd to the other large ones seen at our recent cup ties as these tend to contain a lot of neutrals.

The levels of excitement were also a very refreshing change from what we have generally become accustomed to this season give or take the odd moment of exuberance.

The two first half goals we scored were both of a top quality with the first proving that our Brad Potts can "shoot where he wants "after he majestically stroked in the sweetest of strikes from just inside the area into the bottom corner of the net which gave us an early lead.

After man-of-the-match Ben Whiteman doubled our advantage with a Messi-esque free kick containing pace,power and curve we never really looked in danger of surrendering it.

An early second half strike by Tom Cannon provided me with a Yabba-Dabba-Do moment of Fred Flintstone proportions and also put to bed any niggling doubts I had of an unlikely second-half comeback from our visitors .

After this we seemed to sit back a bit and allowed the visitors a few attacking forays which did not make a dent in our three-goal cushion until they scored a consolation goal right at the death.

Without sounding too much like a grumpy old Victor Meldrew I personally was hoping for another goal as we had not scored four goals in this fixture since a 4-1 win in April 1960 during the final stages of Sir Tom Finney's playing days when both sides were plying their trade in the top flight.

However it was not to be and this mild disappointment was soon forgotten when I saw the huge smiles on the faces of friends and other North End fans as I exited the stadium.