Moyes has taken Preston this far with virtually the same team that kicked off the Second Division campaign last season. Only one member of his squad has played in the Premiership and Richard Cresswell isn't even a Preston player. He's on loan from Leicester.If Preston do miss out, there promises to be no end to the speculation linking their 38-year-old manager to any post which happens to falls vacant. Moyes, a member of Celtic's Scottish title-winning team in 1982, was the second name on Manchester City's wanted list after that of Kevin Keegan."Frankly, we're getting rather tired of all the speculation," Bryan Gray, the Preston chairman, confesses. "David's getting linked with just about every job going and there's not much we can do about that If he wanted to leave, essentially it would be his decision.
But we feel we have helped create an environment in which he can be successful here If he wants to go, he will go. But I think, from what he has said, he knows that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side."Moyes, of course, did not fancy the turf of Old Trafford when Alex Ferguson offered him the lieutenant's role subsequently filled by Steve McClaren. He preferred to stay at Preston and build up his management portfolio, as well as the famous old club. The new-look Deepdale is only half-finished with the mightily impressive stands which carry the names of Sir Tom and his one-time North End team-mate, Bill Shankly and Moyes, it seems, feels the same is true of his managerial job at Preston."I think it's extremely unfair to talk about myself," he said, when asked about his future in the wake of the Maine Road link "It's flattering, but it's wrong to talk about me The people who are important are the players They put me in this position. It's they who have crossed the white line and performed."Tomorrow those players will be crossing the white line and performing against a Bolton team managed by someone who played a key role in making Moyes a Preston North Ender. Sam Allardyce was on the coaching staff at Deepdale when he was asked to make an assessment of the then-Falkirk central defender eight years ago. "If I remember rightly, he got sent off that day," Allardyce says "He did enough for me, though.
I gave him a firm recommendation." And for £10,000 Preston got the man who could make them Premiership millionaires tomorrow afternoon.. If the Millennium Stadium carries on producing games as exciting as this, then whatever plans remain for Wembley should be ripped up immediately and the money spent on something useful. How about a new road and a few more train tracks into the Welsh capital? If the Millennium Stadium carries on producing games as exciting as this, then whatever plans remain for Wembley should be ripped up immediately and the money spent on something useful. How about a new road and a few more train tracks into the Welsh capital? At the end of a compelling encounter that even had the local disciples of the egg-shaped ball reaching for their hymn books, Blackpool moved back into the Second Division at the first time of asking. Steve McMahon's side, very much in the mould of the old Liverpool warhorse, came from behind twice and pulled themselves up after conceding one of the most bizarre goals Nationwide football has witnessed. Leyton Orient were left to reflect on their second play-off final loss in three years. As Tommy Taylor, their manager, said: "Someone said Ipswich took three attempts to reach the Premiership.
