Neil Mellor is no stranger to the Preston North End v Blackpool fixture. During his time at Deepdale he cemented himself in club folklore with a goal in a famous 3-1 win at Bloomfield Road.
Mellor’s celebration saw him end up in with the fans situated in the temporary stand at the time, after spotting his brother in the crowd.
It was 16th November 2008, and Preston conceded early on to Blackpool with former Liverpool player Adam Hammill finding the back of the net.
Alan Irvine’s side hit back though and scored three second-half goals with two of them coming from Chris Brown.
The two strikers linked up superbly that day, and Preston would go on to clinch a play-off place on the last day of that Championship season.
Simon Grayson was in the home dugout that afternoon, and a lot has happened in those last 13 years for both clubs. This is only the second season since then that both clubs have played in the same division.
Neil Mellor now finds himself as a Sky Sports pundit and regularly backs Preston North End, looking back on his time at the club fondly, despite it being interrupted with injuries.
He has now taken to Twitter ahead of the Lancashire Derby on Tuesday evening to reminisce on that particular game, and to also send a message to the current crop of players.
He wished the ‘PNE boys’ good luck ahead of the fixture which has fallen on what would have been Sir Tom Finney’s 100th birthday. He accompanied his tweet with some memorable photos of his goal and celebration on that day.
Tuesday night represents a huge opportunity for someone to join Neil Mellor and Chris Brown and become a winning Derby day goalscorer.
That game is still spoken about 13 years later, and this upcoming one would be too providing we get the right result. Over to Ryan Lowe and his team.