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May 17th 2001

May 17th 2001

Ando60

Ando60

Hat Trick Hero
Joined
Aug 23, 2004
Messages
60,215
Location
Euxton
I’m surprised nobody mentioned it yesterday…… beating Birmingham in the play off Semis.

21 years since that never-to-be forgotten night at Deepdale….

I still get nervous now when I watch the Penalty shoot out on YouTube..

When we won , it was incredible , I hugged the woman next to me who I had never met in my life !!

I will never forget the scenes walking up Deepdale Road after the match and past the Sumners pub, everyone was ecstatic and the car horns were pomping constantly

What a wonderful, wonderful night……..

We never did find Trevor’s dummy !!

Post your memories !!
 
Ended up in a pile of coats under the big screen at the Globe on Marylebone Road, after taking clients to Lord’s on the coldest and wettest day in May ever recorded.

I haven’t fact-checked the last bit. If I’m wrong, it won’t be by much!
 
Was only 16 at the time and about 3/4 years away from when I started going regularly, so didn't attend - remember listening to it on the old radio in my room though and going mental. Can recall the radio commentators being confused about what the hell Trevor Francis was doing.
 
For joy, it’s hard to compare with Wembley 2015. The Swindon match was one long joyous afternoon- but I still think that night topped it by some distance.
 
Regardless said:
For joy, it’s hard to compare with Wembley 2015. The Swindon match was one long joyous afternoon- but I still think that night topped it by some distance.
Click to expand...

I think the tension of that night made the win sweeter than 2015. I will never forget the ball trickling across our goal line just before Rankine scored up the other end. When Rankine scores you see even him put his head in his hands like he can't quite believe what just happened. I don't know if I've heard the crowd that loud since that night and that was with only 3 sides!
In 2015 by halftime it weirdly already felt like we'd won which is very unusual in a North End match as you'd never put anything past them. It was lovely to get that 4th though and just coast back into the championship.
 
I thought the game was up when Graham Alexander uncharacteristically missed a penalty in normal time until Mark Rankine's goal came to the rescue. GA took our first penalty after the rumpus about which end to take them at and no way was he missing again!
Incredibly tense finale and sheer joy when we made it. Great atmosphere throughout.
We went into the season just hoping to do okay and the success we had that season was all the more enjoyable for being unexpected.
Michael Ricketts proved to be a pain that season though.
Stayed on a campsite in Lower Penarth for the final.
Because we didn't expect to get to the play off final that season defeat was disappointing but bearable.
2005 however!🙁
 
I was at the front of the Kop. One of the greatest football matches I've been to. It had it all, tension, drama, Trevor spitting his dummy out (we didn't know what was happening at the time), that ball across goal, Ranks' equaliser. Kids these days go on about "limbs", but that Kop when he equalised was bonkers.
 
I don't know if it's right or not, but I heard the reason Francis kicked off was because he'd previously seen a bloke, (Ando I think his name was) score a hat trick in the Town End goal. After witnessing that, he figured the likes of Horsfield, Lazaridis etc, would be onto a winner if the pens were at the Town End.
 
Was in the family stand with my two children. As Alexander missed the penalty I was consoling them and explaining that this was life as a PNE fan, it always ends in tears. Then that Rankine goal. What a moment to share with your kids.
When the penalty shootout was going on the old guy in front of us didn't jump up when we scored. I noticed he wasn't even watching. When I asked him if he was OK he replied "I have a bad heart and am far too old to go through this."
Only football can create such emotion. What a night that was.
 
I saw the game on TV, I had to to go to Indonesia with work the next morning starting off with something like a 6:00 am flight. I still had a couple of beers though and felt like death the next morning at 3:00 am or whatever! Well worth it though. 😂

When I got back the final was virtually sold out. I was offered a corporate ticket with the Bolton fans but turned it down and watched on TV.
 
janiejones said:
I don't know if it's right or not, but I heard the reason Francis kicked off was because he'd previously seen a bloke, (Ando I think his name was) score a hat trick in the Town End goal. After witnessing that, he figured the likes of Horsfield, Lazaridis etc, would be onto a winner if the pens were at the Town End.
Click to expand...
Love it Janie…..
 
LostinSpace said:
I saw the game on TV, I had to to go to Indonesia with work the next morning starting off with something like a 6:00 am flight. I still had a couple of beers though and felt like death the next morning at 3:00 am or whatever! Well worth it though. 😂

When I got back the final was virtually sold out. I was offered a corporate ticket with the Bolton fans but turned it down and watched on TV.
Click to expand...
Shit fan….
 
Ando60 said:
I’m surprised nobody mentioned it yesterday…… beating Birmingham in the play off Semis.

21 years since that never-to-be forgotten night at Deepdale….

I still get nervous now when I watch the Penalty shoot out on YouTube..

When we won , it was incredible , I hugged the woman next to me who I had never met in my life !!

I will never forget the scenes walking up Deepdale Road after the match and past the Sumners pub, everyone was ecstatic and the car horns were pomping constantly

What a wonderful, wonderful night……..

We never did find Trevor’s dummy !!

Post your memories !!
Click to expand...
Every time I come on this forum I am reminded of your boring hat trick story which further ingrains it in my memory. If only we could choose to have certain images and experiences surgically removed
ps
don’t tell anyone but we will never tire of it
 
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