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What a wonderful advertisement he was for Preston North End but thankfully, him and his mate apart, we were made very welcome having declared ourselves as Dingles.
It had been something of a mystery just what sort of team we would be able to field given the shortage of players at the club but in the end it was Arthur and naughty boy Alan Moore along with the youngsters.
Arthur was captain on the night and his mind must have been wandering back to that wonderful December day when he set Deepdale alight with two goals including the goal of the season winner.
There were problems before kick off when the Preston subs couldn’t find anywhere to sit, the home dug out was full of people asleep. We are led to believe they had been there since the last home match after accompanying The Weary Whinger Craig Brown throughout the ninety minutes.
Preston looked to push forward when the game finally did get underway but it was the Clarets who nearly took the lead early in the game when Damien Hindle got clear in the box after some hesitant work by Preston’s new signing Claude Davis but the giant central defender got back and won the ball back although Hindle led the shouts for a penalty.
Talking about giants, there was also the 6ft7ins Fola Onibuje up front for North End. This man is pure entertainment. If you want to see a player falling over the ball, hitting balls miles away from the target and generally making little contribution then this is the man for you. The Preston fans call him the thinking man’s Peter Crouch.
In fact Onibuje wasted a couple of good opportunities before the home side finally too the lead after 39 minutes. It started down the right with Lee Cartwright and when he played the ball across the 18 yard box it was met by Eric Skora to beat Michael Hale with a shot across him. Hale had started confidently and made two good saves previously but had no chance with this one.
The Clarets (or should we say the Greys) came storming back and were level within 30 seconds of the restart when Richard Chaplow latched onto a ball from Hindle and coolly slotted home.
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Preston retook the lead after 57 minutes when Onibuje made a complete hash of a shot. He sliced it badly but it fell nicely to the impressive Kelvin Langmead who hit home from about 12 yards.
Reserve coach Ronnie Jepson made a change bringing on Tom Ince for Hindle but this left us with no strikers on the pitch and a goal down. We now had Matt O’Neill and Alan Moore playing up front. We tried to force their way back into the game and had a couple of efforts on target from Chaplow and the ineffective Moore but both were saved comfortably by Lucas.
With just over twenty minutes still to play Onibuje took centre stage again. After failing to keep the ball in play he collapsed in dramatic fashion over the touchline but wasn’t injured and was soon back on the field to stun us all when he crashed a powerful header against the woodwork. That was to be the end of his night though and he was substituted shortly afterwards.
Preston were by now very much on top and they extended their lead with twelve minutes left. Again Langmead was involved as he got down the left to cross for Cartwright to knock the ball down. It fell invitingly for substitute Michael Brown who made no mistake.
With the clock ticking down they made it four when Hale failed to hold a cross and Langmead knocked it into the empty net.
So 4-1 it was in the end and as we faded in the last quarter of the game Preston took complete control. With the lack of players at the club the reserve team is certainly going to be like this all season and tonight a total of six first year scholars were used.
Trialist David French did well enough for the first seventy minutes but suffered with the rest of the team in the closing stages. He is certainly worth having another look at.
The lack of players is filtering down and having avoided relegation in the reserve league last season it is going to be another hard fight to do so again. That starts a week on Wednesday with the first home game against Walsall.
The teams lined up:
Preston (4-4-2): David Lucas, Kyle Armstrong, Tyrone Mears, Claude Davis (David Elebert 80), John Bailey, Lee Cartwright, Alan McCormack (Carl Clampitt 84), Eric Skora, Darren Kempson, Fola Onibuje (Michael Brown 74). Subs not used: Paul Carville, Andrew Lonergan.
Burnley (4-4-2): Michael Hale, Danny Pitham, David French, Arthur Gnohere, Paul Scott (Ross Preston 74), Marc Pugh, Darrel Avery, Richard Chaplow (Neal Trotman 84), Matt O’Neill, Damien Hindle (Tom Ince 61). Subs not used: Ryan Townsend, Alex Taylor.
Attendance: 723.
Reserve team fixtures and results