Burnley FC blog: Superior? Those days are long gone, Preston

4:50pm Tuesday 7th September 2010

By Stephen Cummings

A COUPLE of small but pleasant side effects of our short sojourn in the Premier League was not having to put up with playing Preston North End twice a season, and not having to tolerate the tedious prattle of their perpetually cocky supporters.

It will be nice to imagine that having seen their two adversaries rubbing shoulders with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United and trousering tens of millions in the process over the last couple of seasons, that followers of the Lilywhites would have learned some humility – nice, but wholly unrealistic.

It is, for example, unlikely to take very long for those supporters housed in the Cricket Field Stand to launch into a chorus of the hilariously self-deluding chant of ‘We are superior’ on Saturday teatime.

This all stems from the days when North End were regular play-off contenders under a succession of Scottish managers, while Burnley were losing their way in the latter stages of Stan Ternent’s reign.

Any neutral observer would see that over the past couple of seasons, the balance of power has well and truly shifted, perhaps permanently.

It probably started when Paul Simpson declined to give Preston’s then club captain and spot-kick king Graham Alexander a two-year deal.

Three years and one promotion later, Simpson’s judgement looks dafter with every passing game.

And while PNE may have booked in for bed and breakfast in the top six during the back end of the last decade, the Clarets – under the leadership of their very own Scottish manager – had just one go and cracked it first time.

Call it beginner’s luck, and Preston fans probably would, but the financial rewards from just a single season in the land of milk and honey have opened up a chasm between the two clubs wider than at any time before.

In the corresponding period, North End suffered play-off heartbreak (again), had a change of manager, an embarrassing episode with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and only just managed to avoid dropping into League One.

So when the ‘We are superior’ chant inevitably starts up from the David Fishwick Stand come Saturday evening, the appropriate response is not abuse or outrage but sniggering.

And if Burnley can pull off victory with either an Alexander penalty or a Ross Wallace free-kick then all the better.