Super fan John Smith produced one of North End's first ever fanzines

Preston supporter John Smith has never been shy of an opinion or two, especially when it comes to his beloved North End.

For more than a decade, the long-time fan has been a regular contributor to the Lancashire Post during the football season with his weekly PNE column.

Providing a thought-provoking article about his favourite team has been a way of life for the 64-year-old ever since he created one of the club’s first-ever fanzines in the late 1980s.

Deepdale Digested was first produced in 1989; handwritten, photocopied and folded in half before being stapled together.

Priced at 25p per copy, Smith eventually sold enough copies to buy an old typewriter and take the production of his publication to the next level.

“It was the summer of 1989 when I decided to join the explosion of football fanzines and produce something relevant to Preston North End,” said Smith

“PNE had no fanzine at all but I did it mainly for laughs to be shared between friends and work colleagues.

“It was not done as a commercial venture and any profit I made was to be ploughed into buying materials for future issues.”

A combination of factual information, humour and satire, Deepdale Digested was an enjoyable read and fun to write for its author.

Smith added: “The quality was improved due to a journalist friend of mine called Keith Harrison, who was also an ardent PNE supporter from Grimsargh.

“I had played Sunday football with Keith. He was a tremendous help with sorting the typeset out while also becoming a willing contributor by writing some of the articles.

“In later years, Keith would become known to more Preston fans by writing three interesting books called North End Souls which were all about old PNE players and their time at Deepdale.”

As more fanzines began to populate the home supporters’ terraces, Smith ended production of Deepdale Digested and joined forces with another fan, Graham Mangel, to produce Win On The Plastic.

He added: “The readership of the fanzines was growing and we had got up to producing 150 copies but due to an increase in the number of pages which cost more to produce the price had to go up to 40p.

“By the time the third issue of the Deepdale Digested came out in time for Christmas 1989, shortly after North End parted company with legendary manager John McGrath following an horrendous FA Cup defeat at Whitley Bay, another PNE fanzine had been launched.

“PNE View became the fifth independent production which I was aware of at the time.

“The others, alongside with mine, were Win On The Plastic, Tales From The Potting Shed and 53 Miles West of Venus.

“It was a really good effort from all North Enders involved as for a third-tier football club to have five different productions, while some of England's best clubs in the top division did not have any really, was quite incredible.

“I went on to produce a couple more issues, but at the end of the season I decided to throw my lot in with Win On the Plastic.

“One of the problems for us was the 53 Miles of Venus fanzine was mass produced in comparison to ours and was also produced on football programme-style paper.

“People who weren't our friends or regular buyers of our fanzine came to expect that so we were never really going to progress our fanzines.

“The fanzines also took a lot of time and work to do and it became difficult to sustain, so after another year or so following the merger, we ceased production.

“53 miles from Venus ran a bit longer but not as long as Preston Pie Muncher which came out later. In more recent times The Nosebag put fanzines back into circulation for PNE fans after a long absence.

“However, due to competition online and a change in times since the 1990s, its circulation has failed to reach more than 300 despite some of its excellent content including interviews with past players.”

Smith’s life has certainly been devoted to the club - indeed he lives on Lowthorpe Road which runs parallel with the Invincibles Pavilion.

The old players entrance in the old Pavilion Stand was opposite his house and when the new stand was being built, he could watch games from his bedroom window.

Not that he ever took that vantage point when the first team were playing, but he could be seen leaning out of his window when the reserves had a game.

One drawback of living so close to the ground was when arch-rivals Blackburn Rovers secured promotion back to the Premier League in 2001.

“I had to be at work for 6 am in the morning after the midweek game when they beat us to win promotion.

”I was unable to sleep until every single Rovers player had come out of the players’ entrance opposite my bedroom and their drummer had stopped banging his drum in celebration which he did for almost an hour and half after the game had ended.”

Picking his favourite ever player is a difficult one, although he has managed to whittle his No.1 player per each decade of his time supporting the club.

1970s - Alan Kelly Senior

1980s - John Thomas

1990s - Sean Gregan

2000s - Ricardo Fuller

2010 onwards - Paul Gallagher