The John Smith column: Standout Lewis and galloping Pottsy made it an extra special Gentry Day for PNE
Like the Scottish punk band The Skids, the North End travelling faithful also ventured "Into The Valley" for this season’s annual Gentry Day fixture at Charlton Athletic.
On the eve of this very special day which commemorates all of the members of "The Gentry In The Sky" who have passed away over the years, manager Paul Heckingbottom said that he hoped his team could give the fans a day to remember.
The game might not have been a classic but Heckingbottom's team delivered on the day to make it a memorable one.
The delight on the manager's face at the end of the game was a joy to see as he celebrated our first victory on the road since January 4 by fist pumping the delighted fans, who were all dressed in bowler hats, at the end of the game.
It was a fitting end for the 2,000 plus fans both young and old who had made the pilgrimage to London via various forms of transportation in the early hours of the morning.
As usual on this day, the fans backed their team very vocally and did not stop singing throughout the whole game.
They remained loud and proud as they continued to exercise their vocal chords even after the home side opened the scoring and their efforts were rewarded when Lewis Dobbin headed in an equaliser a few minutes later.
There were three surviving members of the starting line up in the 3-1 win at Barnsley four years ago which had been our last Gentry Day win.
Daniel Iversen, Brad Potts and Ben Whiteman were also a big part of this win with all three of them showing that they understood the meaning of the occasion when they donned one of a number of bowler hats thrown onto the playing surface after the game.
On Grand National day, it was Brad Potts who provided the game’s defining moment in the second half.
It was not Aintree winner IamMaximus galloping down the right wing to meet a square ball from Dobbin but it was Pottsy who won the race with two defenders to be first to the ball before sliding in a trademark goal.
To keep with the subject of horses, prior to this season, the only Dobbin I had ever come across was the pantomime horse in the television programme “Rentaghost”.
Dobbin was one of the standout characters in the children's series and similarly our Dobbin has been one of the standout players in our season.
His valuable contribution to the win with a goal and an assist just about gets my vote for man of the match in what I thought was a really good all-round, if not spectacular, team performance.