WEST LANCASHIRE M55 DERBY

The West Lancashire derby (sometimes also known as the M55 derby) is a local rivalry in English football between Lancashire clubs, Blackpool and Preston North End. Blackpool are 19th in the Championship (early days, only 16 matches played so far) and PNE are 9th, 6 points ahead)

Roll the seasons back to the 1950/60s when Colin and Malcolm Bailey may well have been a loggerheads over the West Lancashire Derby between Blackpool and Preston NE. For some curious reason we supported these two teams. We had no idea where they played, Lancashire was a mystery but it was their "star" players, Tom Finney and Stanley Matthews, that attracted our support! In the 1950s both clubs were quite important. The Charles Buchan Annuals and sometimes the Daily Sketch reminded us who they were!

Not living any where near these two north-western clubs, it would not have been feasible to watch a game live at either ground and of course, there was no live football on televsion, no "live" radio commentary, indeed there would not have been any live sport on media. The results read on the family "wirelss" at around 5pm was a link.

This season, technology has move on a bit! But, despite that, no request has been made by Preston for this match to be beamed back to Deepdale. The Seasiders granted PNE permission to beam the game back last season. This time, no go! 

Sadly, ticketless local supporters will not be able to watch the game live. Overseas supporters, however, can watch the game via their club’s respective streaming platform. That’s despite the game kicking off at the earlier time of 12.30pm, which falls outside the UK’s 2.45pm-5.15pm Saturday blackout. 

The fixture at Blackpool's historic, Bloomfield Road hasn’t been selected for live TV coverage, but the kick off was brought forward on police advice. Making the game available to watch on iFollow – or Tangerine TV in Blackpool’s case – is at the home side’s discretion. 

However, Blackpool opted not to. This has caused some anger among Preston’s fans who would have liked the game steamed either at home or in a pub. PNE said in a statement earlier this week: “If you’re not going to the game this weekend, you can listen live on iFollow PNE. “The decision to stream the game to fans in the UK and Ireland is at the discretion of the home club, who have opted not to make this available.” 

Last season, Preston beamed the game back to their ground, Deepdale, for their supporters without tickets to watch. Blackpool also did the same for the reverse fixture. 

The derby has taken place across all four tiers of English football, but not the top flight since the formation of the Premier League. Blackpool were promoted to the Premier League in 2010; Preston North End have yet to reach it. They did not meet in the League between the 2009–10 and 2020–21 seasons, but did so again in the 2021-2 Championship campaign following Blackpool's promotion from the third tier. 

The first West Lancashire derby took place on 23 November 1901 at Blackpool's Bloomfield Road, in front of a crowd of 6,000, Preston won 4–1. 

23/11/37 First Division One meet: P v B 2-0        19/8/67 First Division Two meet: P v B 4-1 

26/9/87 First Div 3 meet: B v P 3-0                      10/10/92  Back to Div 2  B v P 2-3

8/12/07 First Championship meet: P v B 0-1

There have been 95 meetings between the two clubs in all competitions, with North End winning 45 to Blackpool's 31. The remaining 19 matches have been draws. Other meetings: League Cup meets=5, FAC=3, Autoglass=1.

37 miles between the two clubs.