PNE kit parade on Retro Day

The televised clash at Deepdale is ‘Retro Day’ with supporters encouraged to dig out their old North End shirts and wear them for the game.

It is a fan-led initiative as they aim to add colour to the afternoon and more numbers to the crowd.

With Derby currently two points ahead of North End, it is a key game in the play-off race.

The aim is to see fans wearing a range of Preston kits from seasons gone by.

They might be a couple of sizes too small by now but are surely worth an airing in public.

All supporters will have their favourite kit of their time watching North End.

The silky Adidas strip of the late 1970s and early 80s is a particular favourite of many fans of that era.

It started life as a simple all white kit with blue trim and ‘PNEFC’ in italics.

North End were one of the first teams in England to have shirt advertising, with ‘Pontins’ on the Adidas kit from the start of the 1979/90 season.

When Tommy Docherty took over as manager in 1981, he changed the kit back to the traditional blue shorts.

From the early 80s, kits changed on a regular basis with a number of different sponsors appearing on the front of the shirts.

The Hobot-manufactured strip with local insurance firm Garratts as the shirt sponsor was worn in the 1986/87 promotion season and there are a few originals hanging in wardrobes.

There have been the good, the bad and ugly along the way, the garish yellow, blue and white ‘Matchwinner’ away kit from the 1993/94 season, one best not worn with a hangover.

The campaign before had seen North End sport a kit with blue and yellow lines on the arms and chest.

In 1995, David Beckham wore the ‘Footy’ made kit which had sponsors’ name Coloroll written vertically down a blue stripe.

The Baxi-era shirts were popular too, with Andy Saville terrorising defences in 1995/96 with the boiler makers emblazed across his chest.