Charlton Athletic and Preston North End have had several notable encounters in the FA Cup with two out of three early ones leading to Wembley trips.
Our first ever competitive meeting with Preston came in February 1923 in the FA Cup second round, with the Third Division Addicks having already seen off Manchester City in the first round. Not many at the time were predicting another giant-killing act against one of the country's most illustrious names. Long before Arsenal claimed the same mantle, Preston North End became legendary as "The Invincibles" in the inaugural Football League season (1888–89). They achieved a remarkable feat by going unbeaten in all 22 league matches and winning the FA Cup without conceding a single goal, securing the first 'Double' in English football history.
Yet little old unfashionable Charlton headed north with historical irreverence and defeated the Lilywhites 2-0, before going on to beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 at home in the third round. That set up a historic encounter with Bolton Wanderers in the quarter-finals, watched by a then record attendance of 41,023 at The Valley. We lost 1-0 and, unfortunately, as has happened to the club at other points in history, everything went to the dogs after that and we ended up moving to Catford. Thankfully that chapter didn't last too long and we were soon back home, but struggling financially.
Despite the travesty of a war in between, our next cup game against Preston saw us in a better state - managed by the legendary Jimmy Seed and on our way to Wembley in a season when, up to the semi-finals, the FA Cup was played over two legs, reflecting the post-war format adjustments. We drew the first leg 1-1 at Deepdale on February 9th 1946, but five days later in a Valentine's massacre at The Valley, the rampant Addicks hammered their opponents 6-0. That gave us an aggregate score of 7-1 and sent us on a run that would lead to a final meeting with Derby County where we lost 4-1 after extra time. But we'd left our calling card and fallen in love with the idea of cup success.
A year later in the 1946–47 FA Cup quarter finals, we played Preston once again at The Valley, winning 2-1 in an important step to reaching our second consecutive final. In a case of second time lucky, we won, beating Burnley 1–0 after extra time. So it was a case of two runs to the final out of three meetings with Preston. Ironically the next and last, until now, of our FA Cup meetings came in a season when many Charlton fans also ended the year at Wembley, following the country rather than club route. On January 22nd 1966 we faced Preston in the 3rd round at The Valley. The match finished in a 2-3 defeat but the rest, as they say, is history because two Charlton brothers and numerous Charlton fans still ended the season lapping up Wembley glory.
This season once again, just like back in 1923, we are embarking on a quest for FA Cup glory as a Third Division club. Yet while it might be nice to go on a cup run and reach the quarter-finals again, most of us would probably trade that for a sniff of Wembley glory in the play-offs, which now look to be our only realistic route or outside hope of promotion.
Still, we do have a realistic chance of achieving a bit of a 'giant' killing act if we continue our form of recent times - a total of ten points out of a possible twelve in the League since our trip to Northampton. These days, Preston aren't quite so invincible as they were in the 1880s and they currently sit in a lower mid-table position in the Championship. Our last Wembley hero - Patrick Bauer - tends to be an unused substitute these days after a shoulder operation but he may be given a start in a cup game.
Nathan Jones is certainly taking a positive approach:
“We're going there to try and win the game," said Jones. "I’ve never gone into a game looking to shut up shop, thinking a team is better and we can’t win, never."
LATE NEWS: The match has been postponed until Tuesday 14th January