Ex-Preston North End star has his say on controversial Burnley transfer and 'getting hammered' by fans

Former Preston North End winger Ross Wallace assures he never wanted to leave the club in 2010.

The Scot had a successful couple of years at Deepdale, scoring 12 goals and providing 31 assists - 19 of which came in one league campaign - for Preston. He initially joined on loan from Sunderland and the deal was made permanent in January 2009.

Wallace, though, would only spend two seasons at PNE. In the summer of 2010, after adding seven goals to his tally for the club, he signed permanently for Burnley. North End were experiencing financial turmoil and needed Trevor Hemmings to step in.

Wallace had five years at the Clarets and earned promotion to the Premier League in 2013/14. But, he has reiterated that leaving Preston was never something he pushed for - quite the opposite. The Scot recently sat down with ex-PNE strikers, and team-mates, Jon Parkin and Chris Brown to look back on his career.

He told Undr the Cosh: "I didn't want to leave Preston. I phoned Fergie. Did he have George Boyd at Peterborough? Boydy was a brilliant player; I think he wanted to get Boydy in, pretty sure of it, and he needed to free up some money.

“I phoned him and he was like: 'We’ve got a bid in from Burnley, blah, blah, blah'. I phoned him back and said I wasn't going, I'm staying at Preston - because I quite liked it, the lads were good. I was actually looking forward to working with Fergie.

“I'd heard good things about him. He literally phoned me two minutes later and said: 'I've just spoken to the owner Ross... you need to go, the club needs the money'. I said I wasn't moving but he said I needed to. So, I ended up moving to Burnley and I got a bit of stick for it, but Burnley were the only team who came in for us.

“So, I go to Burnley and I remember the fixtures came out early for the season. Fourth game was Preston at the Turf. The changing rooms are at the back of the goal and I was getting battered. Coming for the warm-up, I was getting hammered.”

“Even I was thinking it was harsh.”

Wallace added: “At half-time, you were on fire. Keith Treacy looked like Maradona at the time; he tore us apart. We ended up winning 4-3.

“I remembered the Preston fans singing 'Wallace, what's the score?' and I thought to myself 'I'm being done like a kipper, here'. You were flying and then we got the last minute winner. Billy Jones got sent off. To be fair, even I was thinking it was harsh. It changed the game didn't it?"

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