Paolo's Preston Meltdown

Preston North End 4-1 Swindon Town
Npower League One
Sunday 2nd September 2012

This was a clash between two notorious 'nut jobs' with a history of leaving folk bewildered so, one way or another, something extraordinary was always going to happen.

In the white corner, representing Preston, was Graham Westley - a millionaire-cum-manager with a penchant for imaginary weights, 'inspirational' text messages at daft o'clock in the morning and a guy who'd succeeded in alienating almost his entire squad by declaring himself as a 'medal winner' in his very first meeting with them - not a good thing to say when you've won a league with Stevenage and there's a Champions League winner in Neil Mellor sat staring back at you wondering if he's actually just heard his new gaffer say those words!

In the red corner, representing Swindon, was Paolo Di Canio - an explosive, unpredictable, grossly intense and just over the top lunatic permanently on the brink of explosion, famed for making his players train every day (and that is every day - without fail), throwing strops aplenty and venting to the media; not to forget, of course, the time he pushed over a referee in his playing days.

It was inevitable that one of them would grab the limelight, irrespective of the result!

Going into the game, Preston - only a few years earlier a staple of stability in the Championship when they had such a close-knit and well-respected team, were now distinctly average in League One with some players on their books who, frankly, shouldn't have been at the club. They'd endured a stuttering start to the new season having not won any of their first three league fixtures, though both Huddersfield and Crystal Palace had been beaten in the League Cup.

Swindon, meanwhile, promoted as champions from League Two the previous year, were very much favourites. They'd taken seven points from their opening three fixtures and were fully-expected to make a serious impression in League One under Di Canio.

Of course though, things don't always go according to what's scripted...

The first signs of what was about to follow occurred inside the opening five minutes when PNE took the lead thanks largely to a goalkeeping gaffe from Wes Foderingham. The youngster's attempted clearance was charged down by Stuart Beavon and the ball ricoched fortuitously towards an unmarked Akpo Sodje just inside the area who smashed a first-time shot into the bottom corner.

Di Canio, predictably, wasn't amused and waved his arms around in disgust, gesturing his annoyance towards Foderingham or anyone unlucky enough to catch his eye.

The biggest problem in the minutes afterwards was Swindon's overall display didn't show any signs of improvement. Instead, Preston, including names such as Shane Cansdell-Sheriff and Jeffrey Monakana in their line-up, continued to pull all the strings, look dominant and press forward.

With only 10 minutes on the clock, Di Canio was nudged closer towards an explosion when Scott Laird's ball into the box was tapped home by Nicky Wroe following some patient build-up play. There wasn't anything Foderingham could have done about it - it was just a well-worked goal!

Already you could have cut the atmosphere around the visitors' bench with a knife and what most certainly didn't help Di Canio's mood was the fact that his opposite number - the charming Mr Westley who always had one of those faces you'd just love to repeatedly punch, was chortling, smirking and being more irritating and full of himself than ever. He also loved shouting a few 'statistics' from the sidelines about the opposition's weaknesses did Mr Westley!

Nevertheless, it was Foderingham who had become the Italian's prime target to vent his frustration at - screaming, shouting, swearing and portraying the role of an absolute madman. When the 21-year-old plucked a cross out the air and saw his quick release fall straight at the feet of an opponent, resulting in the hosts winning a free-kick in a dangerous area, it only riled his manager into making the most infamous Swindon substitution of all-time.

Everyone around Deepdale (at least in the home end anyway) were in hysterics at what was about to happen as the substitute 'keeper got warmed up, then ready to come on. Surely, you thought, he's not going to do this? Surely? No. It can't be happening... Oh, but it was!

As the substitution was made, Foderingham showed his disgust as he stomped off down the touchline towards the tunnel, blanking his boss and then booting a water bottle onto the pitch in anger. You weren't sure whether to laugh or sympathise with him but it was comedy gold; totally surreal and it only cranked up Di Canio's anger so much that by the time anyone had had the chance to draw breath, he was biting back to some bait and getting himself involved in petty squabbles and making threats to fans behind his dugout.

It's almost forgotten that for Leigh Bedwell, the substitute 'keeper, this was his professional Football League debut and he was only 18 at the time.

God knows what would have happened if he'd made a mistake?

Leigh Bedwell comes on for his debut (Photo: Swindon Advertiser)

What was certain in the game is that after this incident, there was no way on earth that Swindon were ever going to get back into things. The result was already beyond doubt and most of their own players looked flummoxed and bewildered by the bizarre scenario.

Further damage could only really be inflicted over the remaining 70 minutes or so and Preston went 3-0 up by the break with Beavon converting from only a few yards out after Bailey Wright got on the end of Laird's corner, before Rafael De Vita and John Welsh shared a goal apiece after the re-start to leave Preston as comfortable 4-1 winners.

By the final whistle, Foderingham was sat alone in the away end, having been savvy enough to put some distance between himself and his madman boss at half-time - a good job as it's been said since (on Tommy Miller's episode on Undr The Cosh) that Di Canio stated: 'If your 'keeper was in here now, I'd slit his throat' during an, err, 'motivational' team talk that probably scared the sh*t out of a few players.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long before Sky Sports News' ticker tape, newspaper headlines and sports reports were jam-packed with material about the incident as Foderingham was blasted as 'League One Wes' and 'unprofessional' by his manager who played everything out very publicly in the aftermath and forced him to apologise to his team-mates.

Something which was chronically under-reported at the time, given how well-documented things were, was that Di Canio at one point actually had to be refrained by stewards from climbing over the advertising hoardings and into the stands to confront some Preston fans. Quite what that would have achieved, or how he'd have come out on top against several folk from the same tribe, who knows? But after all, this is Di Canio - so should anything he does really be a surprise? How that didn't get out though and become a massive story in it's own way was madness!

The season didn't transpire too well for anyone involved.

Di Canio quit Swindon after an internal dispute - leading to a late-night break in at the County Ground to 'recover' things he'd left behind in his office before he got the Sunderland job soon afterwards and was infamously sacked after only a handful of matches.

Swindon, meanwhile, reached the League One Play-Offs but were beaten by Brentford.

For Preston, this game was probably the highlight of Graham Westley's reign - the imaginary weights clearly worked wonders for him on this occasion albeit not in the long-term as he was sent packing just five months later - and I'd love to see him fit those imaginary weights in his suitcase (must be a tight fit indeed).

But what a crazy, crazy game to have seen between with two nut-jobs on the touchline, poor old 'League One Wes' - and Leigh Bedwell who is the forgotten party from his own Football League debut!

Mad but very fun times!