Kelly's Heroes

Kelly's Heroes
By Paul Holland
February 15 2003

Preston North End legend Alan Kelly has been named as Deepdale's greatest ever goalkeeper by the supporters of the Lancashire club.

Kelly played for the Lillywhites during the 1960's and was part of the famous team that was beaten West Ham United in the FA Cup Final of 1964.

His appearances with a all star line up such as Howard Kendall, Alec Dawson and Nobby Lawton earned him a place in the Preston history books and named their greatest ever player between the sticks.

Kelly, who is farther of Alan Kelly at Blackburn Rovers has very fond memories of his time at Deepdale: "I loved the place, I loved Preston and obviously my three sons [Gary, David and Alan] are all still around Preston.

"Gary lives about five minutes form North End and David has got season tickets for them. We are all Preston diehards."

And he added on the club's website: "It was a great team to play in, we all stuck together.

"I remember playing at Deepdale once and we might have had a bad day - and we had a few of those - but we always went over to the supporters.

"We all liked a pat on the back but when it went bad we let those supporters who paid their money have a go at us."