Aston Villa tie provides Preston North End overdue event – 65 years on from last FA Cup last eight meeting

Before Preston North End’s FA Cup quarterfinal matchup with Aston Villa, Ross Chapman of

@RChapmanSport writes for the Lancashire Post. The last time Preston North End faced

Aston Villa in the same stage of the competition, six years earlier, during Sir Tom Finney’s final

season at Deepdale, the Walker Brothers were at the top of the charts, a pint cost half a crown,

and Sir Alf Ramsey was four months away from leading his England team to World Cup glory.

Although they lost that day, it was one of many times during that time that the Lilywhites advanced to the late stages of the cup.

Paul Heckingbottom’s Sheffield United team advanced to the last eight in 2023 and then made a further leap

when they defeated Tottenham Hotspur in the fifth round and Blackburn Rovers in the last eight,

before losing to Manchester City in the semi-finals. Now, 65 years later, North End will face the same

opposition in front of a sold-out Deepdale crowd, hoping to inspire a new generation of fans.

Having only advanced past the fourth round six times since the year 2000, PNE has had difficulty

making consistent cup runs for a while. Strong FA Cup performances were commonplace in the

same decade that they had their most recent quarterfinal participation.

PNE was still dealing with the fallout from their First Division relegation the season before and the

retirement of their best player ever when the 1961–62 season started. However,

they had started an incredible FA Cup trip by the end of it.