Preston North End's Dramatic Early Football History
A new book by academic John Williams highlights the importance of Preston North End in the early history of British football. This book is partly-inspired by In Sunshine and Shadow, Eduardo Galeano’s work on South American football. It offers 80 short stories on the people and events that have made British football what it is today.
The book shows how football in Britain has very different roots, meanings, and character from the South American game, and how Britain took the modern game to the world. Then, for many years, we stood outside the international football order. The book starts from the invention of the football itself, and moves right up to the formation of the global Premier League.
Our game is often played out in defining wintry conditions, and perhaps our attacking stars have been praised less than those abroad. The great Stanley Matthews was revered here – that famous 1953 FA Cup final victory - but Len Shackleton and George Best were British virtuosos from very different eras who had their critics. Scotsman Alex Jackson from the 1920s was a marvel, and the Scouser, Wayne Rooney, has stirred the English soul much more recently. Stories about all these - and many more - are covered here.
The book deals with national teams as well as clubs, both big and small. The 80 stories cover six periods, and range across the key events and the people (men and women) who invented, coached, ran, managed, watched, and played in British football at different moments. It also says something about stadiums and those who reported and wrote about the game in all its guises.
The book carries material involving Preston North End. John Williams says:
“Preston North End were famous later for developing the great Tom Finney, but they were the first club to do the League and FA Cup double back in 1889. Manager William Sudell’s many new signings from Scotland refined the team’s already impressive combination play. Before professionalism had been officially sanctioned, Sudell secretly provided those Scots with jobs in the mill he managed.
Observers described Preston’s complex style of play in the 1880s as ‘near perfection’, though Sudell and his team could occasionally be guilty of believing their own press. Before the 1888 FA Cup final against West Bromwich Albion, the PNE players had asked that a ‘victory photograph’ be taken with the trophy, before the game. It was a hard lesson: Preston lost the final. Sudell was later charged with using mill income to pay his top Preston players.”
The book’s narrative reveals great drama, plenty of tragedy, but also moments of unmatched togetherness and joy. It is a quite magnificent warts-and-all journey. You can pick and choose where you want to start and finish. All four Home countries - and lots of individuals and clubs - have their own football stories to tell. You will find plenty of them here.