On this day: Paul Simpson started his reign as Preston North End manager 14 years ago

Simpson, recruited from Carlisle United, was the board's choice to replace Billy Davies who had resigned to take the Derby County job.

North End had narrowed their managerial search down to Simpson and Phil Parkinson who was in charge of Colchester United at the time.

They opted for 39-year-old Simpson on June 17, 2006, impressed by the job he had done in leading Carlisle to back-to-back promotions.

Simpson had big shoes to fill in replacing Davies who had led PNE to the play-offs two years running.

At the press conference to unveil him, Simpson spoke of building on Davies' good work and trying to lead them to promotion.

Under Davies, PNE had been beaten in the 2005 play-off final by West Ham at the Millennium Stadium, then in May 2006 had lost 3-1 on aggregate to Leeds in the semi-finals.

Despite Preston having sold Claude Davis to Sheffield United shortly before Simpson's arrival and then losing Youl Mawene to a serious knee injury on the eve of the season, the new man started well.

In the first-half of the 2006/07 season, North End went top of the Championship and looked to be genuine promotion challengers.

Their good form carried on into early 2007 but from February it began to dip and they were to finish seventh in the table - missing out of the play-offs by a point.

That summer, David Nugent was sold to Portsmouth for £6m, a big loss for Simpson and the North End faithful.

Simpson was in post until November 2007 when he was sacked, with Preston struggling at the wrong end of the table.

After leaving Deepdale he went on to manage Shrewsbury, Stockport and Northwich Victoria.

Simpson had a spell on Newcastle United's coaching staff under Steve McClaren and then was named England Under-20s head coach.

With him at the helm, England won the Under-20s World Cup in 2017 in South Korea.