Preston again

It still brings a shudder down the spine to recall Stan Lazaridis's shot that somehow rolled right along the goal line, stayed out, and was retrieved.

All of a sudden, the ball was in the back of Blues net and Preston North End had saved their skins and were heading towards penalties - and we all know what happened then.

Of course, it was Deepdale, May 17, 2001, the play-offs.

Blues lost 4-2 in the shoot-out (Marcelo and Darren Purse missing) and Trevor Francis's sulk over the choice of ends where they were taken went down into folklore; moreover
Preston folklore.

For the third successive season, Blues had missed out in the play-offs semi-finals and TF was soon to make way for Steve Bruce.

Now Preston stand before Blues and promotion again, this time of the automatic variety.

A win, possibly even a point, would book Blues place in the top-flight. Preston have a slim chance of making the play-offs themselves, so they won't be turning up just to watch a party unfold.

However, due to the 5.20pm kick-off, their chances might have already gone west because of results earlier in the day.

But they do delight in sticking it to Blues, regardless, going back to that First Division spat eight years ago.

In 2007, on the final day, Blues lost 1-0 at Deepdale having spurned some glorious chances to win the Championship.

This season Jon Parkin's stoppage-time goal gave them the win at home too.

In their ranks are Sean St Ledger, a Villa fan raised just around the corner from St Andrew's who was considered by Bruce on trial, and someone called Darren Carter came on in the 6-0 drubbing of Cardiff City last Saturday.

And for those who dread the worst case scenario laced with irony, Paul McKenna will break Sir Tom Finney's record of 472 appearances at St Andrew's - he was the man who rammed in the winning penalty in that play-off drama.

If the game goes according to form, then Blues should get what they require.

They are on their best unbeaten sequence, of nine games, since Bruce's team got it rolling on the way to Cardiff and play-off glory in 2002.

St Andrew's has become a tough place to play again - 11 men or not - and Blues really do have that fixed stare about them, fixed firmly on automatic promotion.

From watching the team, to seeing them around Wast Hills and talking to players, that's what comes across.

The attitude's been there since Bristol City at home for me, that was the game, the performance, that got Blues going. It was if that night their desire, ability, resolve and determination shone through - the penny dropped.

At the pre-match media conference on Thursday afternoon at Wast Hills, Alex McLeish and James McFadden were similarly focused.

McFadden, in particular, was quite open about what this game meant to him. He was honest about his own form. For those who still think he 'doesn't want to be here', they should think again.

I bumped into Garry O'Connor in the car park and he said the players were really going at it in training, flying about. They couldn't wait. Again, that sense of the moment is nigh, we won't let it slip, sprung to mind.

Let us hope Blues do indeed deliver and don't let Preston throw another spanner in the works.