On this day: Preston North End finish the 1982/83 season on a winning note at Wigan

They won their last three games of the Third Division campaign with Gowling scoring in all three.

A final-day clash took North End to Springfield Park to play Wigan Athletic on May 14, 1983.

Gowling scored the game's only goal on an afternoon when things got lively on the terraces, with play held up at one stage - that even got a mention on BBC's Grandstand programme.

Victory over Wigan meant they completed a league double, having beaten the Latics 4-1 at Deepdale on New Year's Day.

The 82/83 season was former Manchester United and Bolton Wanderers man Gowling's one campaign as a Preston player.

He played the first-half of the campaign in midfield and occasionally at the back, before having a spell up front in the last couple of months.

Gowling got on a roll in terms of finding the net, scoring in a 1-0 victory against Lincoln City at Deepdale on May 2.

A few days later, him and Steve Elliott scored in a 2-0 home win over Reading.

Then came the Wigan game, Gowling scoring in front of a 7,191 attendance, a good many of who had travelled from Preston.

Those three wins at the end were part of a decent run of form towards the end of the season, one in which PNE finished in 16th place.,

They lost only one of their last 13 games, that coming after a run of one victory in 11 - contrasting form to say the least.

In those 13 games they picked up 30 points in a season when they put 58 on the board.

That season had seen a significant event off the pitch at North End, with the club moving out of their Willow Farm training ground on Longsands Lane.

With the area earmarked for housing as part of the new town development, they moved to a new training site at Red Scar - basically it was one pitch near to the main road opposite Courtaulds.