(200 grand actually, enough for them to buy Alex Mathie)

PRESTON can look forward to banking £200,000 thanks to their away-day at Arsenal - providing them with enough to buy on-loan striker Alex Mathie.

Mathie has already won the support of the Deepdale faithful, knocking home two goals in the crucial Worthington Cup tie with Sheffield Utd - which led to the dream tie with Arsenal - and also scored the only goal in Saturday's game against Bristol City.

The 30-year-old, who is now in the second month of a three-month loan from Dundee United, has already expressed his desire to stay at Deepdale, and it would be a confident manager who sent back a player who is obviously in such form at the moment.

Last season, North End were lucky to recapture Steve Basham once he had finished his loan, and surely David Moyes wouldn't want to risk missing out on Mathie.

Now, thanks to Tuesday's game, there might just be enough money sloshing around in the Deepdale coffers to make Mathie's move a permanent one.

Speaking about the game, Moyes said: "These matches mean a lot to us financially. We had good memories from meeting Arsenal in the FA Cup last season and because of that cash Preston had their best financial year for two decades." And, unlike Basham last term, who insisted on keeping his options open, Mathie has already made his intentions known.

Basking in the glory of Saturday's match-winner, Mathie said: "I am delighted with the goal.

"What is important is that the team wins and I'm more than happy with that.

"I'm enjoying every minute of my time here at Deepdale."

When he joined, he said: "The loan move is with a view to Preston signing me permanently. It's up to me to prove I am worth keeping and hopefully I will impress the manager."

North End more than proved their credentials on Tuesday night, despite losing 2-1. A dubious goal is all that separated the two teams on the night, and Jon Macken, Preston's scorer, was delighted to get on the scoresheet.

He said: "It was great to see that go in; to score at Highbury against England's goalkeeper is one of the best moments of my career."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger also heaped praise on North End: "Preston played very well indeed and we only got away with it because of our extra experience and pace."

Moyes said: "I was very pleased with our performance. We battled hard and when you think that not long ago teams of Preston's level would come to placed like Arsenal and Liverpool and lose five or six and you see what we've done here tonight, then it shows how far we have come on."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.