Preston book the bus after finally winning
Few will ever forget the scenes that followed Hull securing survival in their debut Premier League campaign in spite of a 1-0 defeat to a severely weakened Manchester United side at the KC Stadium, as Phil Brown serenaded the Tigers fans with an impromptu karaoke session.
Given the celebrations after staying up in such an inglorious manner, the party should Brown keep Preston in the Championship having been 13 points shy of 21st-placed Crystal Palace promise to be incredible, with the charismatic tactician already demanding an open-top bus parade if he delivers.
He finally enjoyed his first win as Deepdale boss at the 13th attempt at fellow strugglers Scunthorpe on Tuesday night, with a shock 3-0 victory sure to inspire belief among his players after encouraging draws against promotion hopefuls QPR, Nottingham Forest and Norwich.
Ten points stand between themselves and a 12th straight year in the Championship but with home games against freefalling Coventry, who are arguably more likely than Crystal Palace to be dragged into the bottom three, and stumbling Swansea up next, there's an opportunity to build momentum.
Gaining the total needed to climb three places up the table is still a hugely difficult task, especially with only ten matches left to bolster their dismal tally of 28 points, however Brown has remained upbeat throughout the most challenging of honeymoon periods, never losing faith publicly at least.
Odds of [1.09] on them dropping into League One show that they aren't fancied to pull off a great escape, yet with Scunthorpe axing Ian Baraclough and Sheffield United failing to inspire, getting off the bottom appears achievable, and if that is managed, the morale boost could carry them further.
It's a long shot, but North End now have a very, very steep hill to climb to avoid relegation rather than a beast of a mountain, and if you think they can do it, you can lay them at [1.13] to go down.
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Published: 16 Mar 2011
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