Goals to remember for former Preston North End hero Sean St Ledger

Sean St Ledger has been looking back at two huge goals he scored for Preston North End at the end of 2008/09 season.

The first sparked a pitch invasion and the second, in the end, was in vain as North End were knocked out at the semi-final stage of the play-offs.

The first goal came in a famous run into the play-offs in 2009 culminating in a 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers at Deepdale.

All looked lost for PNE in terms of the chase for the top six after they went on a run of just one win in seven games.

However, Alan Irvine’s men won their last four games to squeeze into the play-offs.

A 6-0 hammering of fellow play-off chasers Cardiff City came in that run, the sixth goal that day proving the difference between making the top six and missing out.

North End went into the final day of the season needing to beat QPR and hope results elsewhere went their way.

St Ledger scored the winner in a 2-1 victory, getting on the end of a long throw-in from striker Jon Parkin.

That came as a surprise bearing in mind the ‘Beast’ was not known for his throw-ins.

St Ledger said: “We’d never practised for it.

“We’d done all the groundwork to get ourselves into the position and we were real outsiders at the time, we’d beaten Cardiff by a pretty heavy score and that gave us the belief.

“We went into the last game of the season and one thing I always remember about playing at Deepdale was how difficult it was for the opponents. Back then, teams didn’t really fly up to Preston, they were getting the coach.

“So getting the coach up from London on a Friday afternoon, it wasn’t the easiest of journeys.

“I remember that was a thing we used, that teams had long journeys up and our home form had always been good.

“I think under Billy Davies it had been superb and it was a difficult ground to come to.

“We knew that we needed to start quickly, there was a fear factor around Deepdale and teams knew it was a tough place to come and a tough place to get three points.

“ With that last game, it just happened off the cuff.

“Jon went over to take the long throw and none of us knew he had it in him.

“Chris Brown was in there and the goalkeeper came out to punch when he probably should not have.

“It was more or less a one-v-one battle with Peter Ramage and thankfully I was able to out-jump him.”

There was a tense end to the game, with PNE having a slender lead and knowing they needed to maintain their advantage, as well as results elsewhere going their way.

It needed a strong rearguard in the closing stages to see them through.

“Once that happened, the nerves began to set in because you knew it was close,” St Ledger said.

“You could hear the crowd celebrating because Sheffield Wednesday were beating Cardiff.

“As a team we dropped a bit more and QPR started to come with the pressure.

“They had a corner in the last minute which Darren Carter cleared off the line, then there were the scenes of everyone running on to the pitch at full-time.

“I think that was such a good story because no one expected us to get into the play-offs and then steadily people started to believe and then in the last game they started to believe some more.

“Then there was the euphoria that you’d achieved something that no one else expected. It was a fantastic feeling.

“Football will always be about small margins – when players talk about managers they often talk about the finer details.

“It just so happened that we beat Cardiff by such a big margin and then it came down to goal difference.

“It all came together that year.”

After the euphoria of securing a place in the post-season, then came the main event of the play-offs.

Sheffield United were the opposition and the first leg was at Deepdale on a Friday night.

North End drew first blood. Billy Jones’ free-kick came into the box, with St Ledger showing the calmness of a striker to slot home.

The Blades equalised just after half-time, the first leg finishing 1-1.

In the return at Bramall Lane, the home side edged it 1-0 to reach Wembley.

St Ledger said: “Going to the game, you could sense the atmosphere before you got there, it was my first real sense of it.

“We knew Sheffield United would be a really tough game, they had Kyle Walker playing for them, Darius Henderson,Greg Halford.

“We played really well in that first game, I managed to get the goal. I showed quite good composure to score!

“They equalised and had a bit of pressure.

“It was always going to be very difficult away. I don’t think we deserved to lose in the second leg, but I don’t think we deserved to win.

“We didn’t create many chances and I remember sitting in front of the away fans after the game and it was just an empty feeling, thinking could we have done more?”