He'd joined Preston soon after losing his job at Peterborough, and when the axe came at Deepdale, in what is becoming an annual even there, he was soon back at London Road, replacing Gary Johnson.
He brought Peterborough back up to the Championship. They started very well but have recently had a bit of a slip. Maybe he's been getting some stick from the Peterborough fans and he said yesterday: “If I was a fan looking in from the outside at the start of the season I’d have definitely settled for 33 points with 18 matches to go.
“Realistically how many fans would have expected us to do any better? In the last 12 months we have sold two top strikers for decent money and still won a promotion and got into a decent position in the Championship.
“We are on a poor run, but it’s not a question of changing systems or players, it’s a question of getting back to the level of performance we were delivering before Christmas. We know we can win games at this level, although we face a tough one tomorrow.
“I watched Burnley win at Forest on Tuesday and they gave as good a performance as I have seen from a Championship team. Like us, they are young and athletic and they work hard, but we go up there believing we can get a positive result.”
Eddie Howe is fashioning some excellent results on the road and he'd love to start replicating that with a run of home wins. Even so he's seen his side climb from close to the bottom three and within touching distance of the play offs.
"In some respects we are not being talked about and I don't think we have really been talked about as challengers this season, and I think that suits us," he said ahead of the Peterborough game.
"We are quite happy with that tag. Let everyone else catch the headlines and everyone else do what they have to do and we will just go about our business and try and win games. That's all we can do.
"We are certainly not getting carried away and we are certainly not going to big ourselves up. We are on a good run of form and hopefully teams will begin to take us seriously but we have just got to try and hang in there."
He added: "With our start to the season we have been playing catch-up now for a long time and with these wins we are slowly closing the gap on the teams above us, but it has seemed to take forever. added Howe.
"We seem to win games but don't seem to go anywhere in the league. I think it's been hugely frustrating that our league position has still looked 'okay, we are all doing right'. We want to make that final leap where we get up there; of course we do, but hopefully we will time our run."
He also spoke of the influence of the Burnley fans with just over 2,000 at the City Ground to see the win over Forest. "I certainly feel the supporters are beginning to understand the team now and beginning to appreciate the team, which is so important," he said.
"I think they see a young team which is really keen to do well and now everyone is fighting for the club and putting their bodies on the line and working extremely hard. That's all the supporters want to see. They want to see players giving their all for the club and for the badge and I think they are seeing that now.
"It's a two way thing. They have responded and started to get behind the boys and if they can continue to do that, especially at home where we really need their support in the tough times as well as the good times, then we have got a good chance."
