John Smith reflects on PNE’s penalty shootout win against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.

Our start to the 2026-27 season was very unusual as it began with a Saturday Carabao Cup ‘home’ tie played at Goodison Park, writes JOHN SMITH.

One plus of this for a good number of the fans who travelled across to Merseyside was that there was an abundance of traditional old-style public houses, close to the ground, for them to enjoy a pre-match tipple.

This is something now sadly missing in modern times in the areas close to Deepdale, our normal venue for home games.

With the sky-high temperature making a sunny Kirkdale feel more like Kos, I had also been forced into taking a post-World Cup pre-match hydration break of my own.

As I walked up Kirkdale Road to the stadium, I had enjoyed myself so much before the kick-off that I had the tongue-in-cheek thought that - similar to the Benidorm trip - it would be nice if we could come back and do this one again next year too.

Any fears I had that the strange venue could make the atmosphere similar to that of a friendly and benefit the opposition soon disappeared when I entered the Gwladys Street End to the familiar sound of the Wallace and Gromit theme tune: you could tell straight away that our fans were up for this one.

The players seemed to be too and we looked to be in control in the game’s opening stages without creating much in terms of shots on goal.

However, midway through the first half, a simple ball over the top caught out new captain Lewis Gibson who made a rugby-style tug on his opponent’s shirt.

Had the sport’s legendary commentator Eddie Waring been on the mic, he would have been saying ‘he's off for an early bath’ before the referee produced the red card from his back pocket.

To use the catchphrase of Waring, who was born near Huddersfield, we were caught out again when what was basically an ‘up and under’ free-kick floated into the box was headed in before half-time.

Huddersfield had not looked great but we had not looked capable of scoring so, at half-time, I was not convinced that with 10 men, we could come back into the game.

The second half was much different and we were by far the better side.

We soon began to at last ask questions of Huddersfield’s defence.

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We pressed more after manager Paul Heckingbottom gave competitive debuts to Josef Erabi and Delano Burgzorg.

The pair combined to produce our last-gasp equaliser in the third minute of injury time, sending the tie into a penalty shootout.

After going almost two years without having a penalty awarded, and with another two strong appeals turned down on Saturday, it felt a bit surreal watching our players taking spot-kicks.

Keeper Daniel Iversen saved the first two Huddersfield ones to relieve the tension.

Burgzorg’s penalty, which won the tie, might not have been as important as George Mutch’s in our last main cup trophy win against Huddersfield in the 1938 FA Cup Final - but it does keep the dream of emulating that feat this season alive.

Only six more wins needed now!