How Preston North End’s record-setting night with Fulham sits in their spot-kick history book

Fulham must have had a nice time on that journey home. Credit: GHodgsonSport

Preston North End historian Martin Atherton was the man with the knowledge after a memorable night at Deepdale. Shame about the follow-up…

North End’s never-ending penalty shoot-out versus Fulham certainly gained the club some rare national media coverage.

Not only did it set a new record for the competition by involving 34 spot-kicks but it also lasted 23 minutes – given extra time was abolished to reduce the load on players, it wasn’t that successful on this occasion but not one person in the ground was complaining.

The quality of the penalties was exceptional, with arguably 30 of the 34 being unsaveable. The only exceptions were the blaze over the bar, the two that were saved and Ben Whiteman’s second, which he sneaked under the keeper’s body.

This seems a good time to look back on PNE’s record in penalty shoot-outs in competitive matches and where else could we start than 2001 and the play-off semi final.

Hats off to Graham Alexander, David Healy, Sean Gregan, Rob Edwards, Paul McKenna for stepping up to the spot and let’s not forget David Lucas, whose saves from Birmingham’s first two attempts put all the pressure on our opponents. Rob Edwards never took a penalty in a game for North End but he had been a regular for Carlisle earlier in his career, while Paul McKenna only took one but that was saved in the final minute at Stoke and meant we missed out on a point that day.

In all, North End have been involved in eight shoot-outs in the League Cup and the Fulham game was only our second success. The only other time we came out on top was versus Hull in 2019 after a 2-2 draw and we won 5-4 after extra time. All the other six were lost, twice by 6-7 scorelines.

The first of these was our first ever penalty contest in the League Cup and came after two goalless draws with Grimsby Town, for whom Aidan Davison was superb in the Mariners goal in the second leg, stopping everything thrown at him. North End had 33 attempts at goal that night in the 120 minutes, with 18 on target but Davison refused to be beaten, before saving two of North End’s nine penalties.

We have had more success in the Football League Trophy under its various sponsorship titles. The first time North End had to settle a game in this way was at Huddersfield Town’s former Leeds Road ground and also followed a goalless game involving extra time. How many of the 1,379 spectators stayed right to the end on a bitterly cold night is not recorded but they eventually saw Town triumph 5-4, with North End’s final penalty being confidently dispatched by keeper Steve Woods.

That was the first of eight such conclusions to ties in the competition and our record is much better than from a similar number in the League Cup, with us progressing to the next round on five occasions.

These include our highest score prior to the Fulham game, when we beat Oldham Athletic 10-9 in the then Johnson’s Paint Trophy at Boundary Park in 2014. Kevin Davies had his kick saved before Thorsten Stuckmann came up with yet another of his stellar performances against shots from 12 yards.

He saved one of Oldham’s efforts before his opposite number Nathan Etheridge blazed over the bar and Stucky sealed the game by scoring the 11th penalty. Stucky was a spectator at the Fulham game and his mind must have drifted back to his introduction to the PNE fans, which came in a JPT tie at Rochdale in 2011.

The game ended 1-1 and Thorsten saved three penalties to see North End through 4-2. Morecambe had been also beaten on penalties in the previous round, Andreas Arestidou in goal during a 7-6 shout-out victory, and so it was no surprise when our third game in the competition that season also ended all square at home to Chesterfield.

Stucky again came up trumps, saving the first penalty but two misses by his teammates meant his efforts were in vain. So 17 penalty shoot-outs in the last 31 years, eight wins and nine defeats, 86 scored and 82 conceded – an average scoreline of 5.2-4.8, so no sudden death needed!

The Nose Bag: This article featured in the most recent edition of The Nose Bag, which was released in November 2024. You can take a subscription or buy issues from the archive here.

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