Phil Brown is new Manager of Preston North End

Photo from Lancashire Evening Post.

Phil Brown, former manager of Hull City, has been appointed manager of Preston North End. The Lancashire Evening Post reports that the "New Preston manager has Premier League ambitions" - brave talk for a manager of a team cut adrift in the Championship in January. Right now PNE fans will settle for fourth from bottom to avoid relegation! PNE have lost three games in a row since our last win against Ipswich Town (who have also endured the managerial merry-go-round with the sacking of Roy Keane today).

Phil Brown has got to be better that Darren Ferguson. He has a lot of experience in the Championship which counts much more that his (almost) two years as manager of Hull City in the Premiership. No doubt he is glad to be back in management, and is raring to go.

Photo from 101 Great Goals.

But...if he saves PNE from relegation it will rank alongside Lazarus's resurrection as a miracle. PNE have no money, are seriously in debt, lack confidence, are on a losing streak, and more importantly - don't have the players to get us out of the relegation fight. Staying up is a tall order - Brown is quoted today on PNE.COM as saying "We have got 22 games to go and we will probably have to win over half of those games to stay in this Championship". While I do hope that he can help Preston stay in the Championship (PNE have made the play-offs four time since promotion in 2000) - I feel it may be even beyond the powers of Phil Brown to save us. Brown is of course famous for many things including his half time team talk to the Hull City team when they were 4-0 down to Man City. We needs his balls now!