After 15 years commentating on his favourite team on his favourite radio station, it came as a blow to Citizen columnist Tom Parker to learn that Magic 999 was accepting defeat and passing local sports coverage over to a bigger station. Is he bitter? Judge for yourself...as Tom looks back over the highs and lows of his time in the press box.

I AM NOT too certain who it was who first said 'football is a funny old game', but whoever it was, he was right.

Reporting and commentating on the game is a wonderful experience insofar as you are able to paint the pictures, bring the match into the living room, car, or wherever and, if you are doing the job properly, can have the listeners on the edge of their seats with excitement.

For the most part my 15 years with Red Rose sport has been spent watching PNE.

There have been brief excursions with Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Burnley and Wigan Athletic but nothing, not even trips to Sweden and France with Rovers and one to Italy for the Carl Crook championship fight, have given me as much pleasure as reporting on North End. Such exotic locations have all been evened up by freezing nights at places like Exeter, Carlisle and Millwall.

There have not been many highs in terms of winning things, gaining promotion from Division Three a few seasons ago was wonderful and before that, the late John McGrath managed a similar performance on the final day at Leyton Orient.

They were wonderful occasions I will remember forever and travelling around town on an open-topped bus with the team through the crowded streets was breathtaking.

The lows are there for all to see yet the Preston fans have taken them in their stride.

The season just ended saw Preston involved from day one in a dramatic bid to win promotion, only for it to collapse, like the famous Devon Lochs' Grand National challenge, in the closing stages. The trip to Wembley in the play-offs with Wycombe Wanderers was another cliffhanger which again went wrong in the final analysis. Similar play off semi-finals with Bury and Port Vale were mouth-watering encounters which again brought disappointment.

Add to that the relegation match at Bolton on the closing day of the season and you have some of it.

Who will ever forget that nightmare defeat in the FA Cup against Whitley Bay, the non-league outfit?

John McGrath was manager at the time and I went and asked him for his comments afterwards. I got them on tape but couldn't use them - for obvious reasons!

Sir Tom Finney has been a joy, always available for an interview and what a lot of sense the great man talks. So knowledgeable about the game he graced in the famous PNE shirt.

The Deepdale ground is coming on, and when completed it will be among the best in the country.

Yet, as a commentator, it is the Preston fans who I have tried to reach.

Those who couldn't get to the game or who have long since stopped attending matches, for whatever reason, yet still always look for the North End result first.

I hope I have brought them excitement because that is what it is all about. I have enjoyed bringing them good news of Preston successes, just as I have had to bring them bad news when things haven't gone to the script.

The best season was the one with John McGrath when we put together something of a double act.

I just never knew what he was going to say in the commentary box and I am sure that sometimes neither did he.

He could be quite wonderful at times and I will miss him like you just can't imagine.

The night we sat in the blacked out stand at Macclesfield due to power failure, Big Mac was having a go at Efetobore Sodje, the giant Nigerian defender, when, with the words just dispatched from his lips, Sodje hit a clearance off the pitch and into McGrath's lap leaving great muddy ball stains on his white shirt, tie and light suit.

The night of the ladies international between England and Germany I handed back to the studio by telling John Gillmore, much to his amusement, that Gillian Coulthard was my MAN of the match! I will always treasure memories like that.

The icing, the cherry and the candle on the cake was when I was invited to write match reports for The Citizen, as it offered me another dimension to my North End coverage.

The decision by Red Rose to stop its football commentaries next season came as a hammer blow and, to be honest, I haven't properly taken it in yet. I keep hoping it is all a bad dream, and that I will soon wake up. There is still time for the decision to be reversed and nothing would give me more pleasure.

I hope you have enjoyed my commentaries as much as I have enjoyed doing them, and I'd like to thank you all for your letters and kind comments.

Tom Parker

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.