Manchester United in the deep end as Preston plot an FA Cup upset
PRESTON manager Simon Grayson set his sights on a famous FA Cup double as Deepdale went FA Cup crazy yesterday over the fifth round visit of Manchester United.
Simon Grayson is aiming for a victory over Manchester United at Deepdale
Grayson was manager of Leeds who stunned United by winning 1-0 in a third round tie at Old Trafford in January 2010.
It was the first and only time Sir Alex Ferguson lost to a lower division club in his 27 years as United boss and also the only time he suffered a third round exit.
And to further spook United, two of the players who starred for Leeds that day - striker Jermaine Beckford, who scored the winner, and midfielder Neil Kilkenny - are now with North End.
Jubilant Grayson looked ahead to his League One promotion chasers facing Louis Van Gaal's expensive squad in a fifth round tie at Deepdale in 11 days time after their 3-1 defeat of Sheffield United and said: "We have gone through to face Manchester United at home, one of the biggest clubs around.
"When Leeds beat them a few years ago that was a fantastic day. This is a different club, a different team, but we will look forward to this tie just like Leeds did.
"We will enjoy the moment to ply our trade against the best players when it comes round because we have two important League matches before then.
"It will be lovely to see Deepdale full. It is a massive boost for the club with the profile it gives us and the revenue which can come in.
"The club deserves it – they've not had many ties like this in the last few years."
The focus is the title- Van Gaal [AMBIENT]
Kilkenny reckons Preston can take United's scalp just like Leeds did five years ago.
"We went to Old Trafford and no one really expected us to do much," he recalled. "But we were confident going into the game.
"The gaffer let us show what we could do. There were 8,000 Leeds fans there that day in a crowd of 75,000.
We will enjoy the moment to ply our trade against the best players when it comes round because we have two important League matches before then
Simon Grayson
"It was a massive cup upset and it will be something we are aiming to do here at Preston.
"Hopefully we can play with the same guts and character we did to win our replay over Sheffield United."
The tie is a dream come true for left back David Buchanan – a lifelong United fan.
"I'm a United supporter – everyone at this club knows that," he said. "I see them as the biggest club in the world, certainly they are the biggest club in this country.
"I think that because of the trophies they have won, the longevity of Sir Alex Ferguson when he was manager, the quality of the players they have brought in and the way youth was introduced."
The fifth round tie will be the first time the clubs have met in competitive action since 1972 when a United team, including fabled Holy Trinity of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George best, won a found round tie at Deepdale 2-0 – with two Alan Gowling goals.
The game has generated huge excitement in the town with the club's ticket office manager saying: "The phone has stopped ringing all day."
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There are huge historical links between these two north west clubs.
United and England legend Charlton, on the board at Old Trafford, managed North End between 1973-75 after retiring as a player.
David Moyes, United's former boss, began his managerial career at Deepdale and United have loaned several players there over the years, notably David Beckham, who played four games for them alongside Moyes in 1995 and Danny Welbeck, now at Arsenal.
Ferguson's son Darren also managed Preston and when he was controversially sacked after less than a year in charge in December 2010 his father immediately recalled the United players who were on loan there, as did his friend Tony Pulis, then the Stoke manager.
That led to bad feeling between the clubs but Preston, like Yeovil and Cambridge United in the third and fourth rounds respectively, are now rubbing their hands at the prospect of a cash jackpot.
They will earn £247,500 alone from their share of the BBC 'live' TV screening.
Add to that a 42 per cent share of a 22,000 sell-out crowd plus the £90,000 in prize money for reaching the fifth round, and a match that is the talk of the town.