Preston North End was founded in 1863, originally as a
cricket club, and played their first matches at the Marsh near the
River Ribble in the
Preston suburb of
Ashton. Later that year, they switched to
Moor Park in the north of the town, calling themselves "North End" in recognition of the new location. On 21 January 1875, the club leased a field opposite Moor Park on the site of the current
Deepdale stadium, which has been its home ever since. The club formed a
rugby union team in 1877 as a winter
fitness activity but this was not a success and, a year later, they played their first game under the
rules of association football. In May 1880, a proposal to fully adopt the association code was unanimously accepted and Preston North End Football Club was officially founded. In
1888–89, Preston became the first league champions and the first winners of "
The Double", becoming the only team to date to go throughout an entire season unbeaten in both the league and
FA Cup – winning the FA Cup without conceding a goal. The team did so with a majority of their team being made up of Scottish players (the
Scotch Professors). In a contribution to Paul Agnew's 1989 biography of
Tom Finney, the player himself wrote: "The club has long been known as Proud Preston, and the Old Invincibles of the previous century set some incredible standards". The author wrote elsewhere: "...and that team became immortalised as the 'Old Invincibles'". Other sources call the team "The Invincibles" and both versions of the nickname have been used. In his autobiography, Finney wrote: "The championship stayed with North End — by now tagged the Old Invincibles — the following year, but runners-up spot had to suffice for the next three seasons". As Finney said, Preston were league champions again in 1889–90, but have not won the title since. In total, they have been league runners-up six times, including the three consecutive seasons from 1890-91 to 1892–93, and twice in the 1950s when Finney was playing. The club's last major trophy win was in the
1938 FA Cup Final when they defeated
Huddersfield Town 1–0 and the team included
Bill Shankly,
Andy Beattie and goalscorer
George Mutch. Preston's most famous player,
Tom Finney, joined the club as a teenager in 1938. His first team debut was delayed until 1946 by the
Second World War but he played for Preston until he retired in 1960. He was nicknamed the "Preston Plumber" because of his local business. Finney remains the club's top goalscorer, with 187 goals from 433 appearances, and also scored 30 international goals for
England in 76 appearances. A year after Finney's retirement, Preston were relegated to the
Second Division and have not played in the top division since. They had a memorable
season in 1963–64 when, managed by former player
Jimmy Milne, they finished third in the Second Division and reached the
1964 FA Cup Final where they lost a thrilling match 3–2 to
West Ham United. Preston were first relegated to the
Third Division after the
1969–70 season. Although they won promotion again immediately, the team have spent 28 of the 49 seasons since 1970 in the bottom two divisions, including a span of 19 seasons from 1981-82 to 1999–2000. The club experienced a near-terminal decline in the 1980s which brought about the very real threat of closure, the nadir being the
1985–86 season when they finished 23rd in the
Fourth Division and had to seek re-election to the league. , Preston were
Division Two champions in 2000, and narrowly missed out on promotion to the Premier League the following season. Under manager
John McGrath, the team recovered and won promotion back to the Third Division only a year later but it was a false dawn as the team spent another three years in the bottom division from 1993 to 1996. The club finally began to recover and move forward after a takeover by heating manufacturer
Baxi in 1994 but their ownership ended in June 2002. The team's central defender
David Moyes, then aged 34, began his managerial career when appointed by the Baxi-controlled board in February 1998. Moyes was successful and managed the team to the
third tier championship in 2000. Preston reached the
2001 play-off final but were defeated by
Bolton Wanderers. In the
2005 play-off final, under Moyes' successor
Billy Davies, Preston were beaten 1–0 by West Ham United. Following the Baxi sell-off and the departure of Moyes to
Everton in 2002, the team was established at second-tier level through the 2000s but more problems arose at the end of the decade with an
HM Revenue and Customs winding-up order in 2010 and relegation to the third tier in 2011. The taxation issue was resolved by local businessman
Trevor Hemmings, already a shareholder, who bought a controlling interest in June 2010. The team were promoted again, via the play-offs, in 2015 and have remained in the
EFL Championship since then, with a highest finishing position of 7th in the
2017–18 season. Preston North End reached the
2024–25 FA Cup quarter-finals but they lost 3–0 against
Aston Villa at
Deepdale. ==Ground==