Paul Simpson was appointed Preston North End manager on June 17, 2006, taking over the reigns from Billy Davies.

His achievements at Carlisle United, his hometown club, had made him the outstanding candidate for the position at Deepdale. In just under three years in command at Brunton Park, Paul had steered the Cumbrians to two successive promotions; firstly winning the 2004/05 Conference Play-Offs and then the following season clinching the League Two title.

At a press conference announcing his appointment, Paul explained: "I will work as hard as I possibly can to try and keep the success going that the previous managers have had at this football club."

With a number of the backroom staff departing, Paul set about bringing in his own team of coaches with Billy Barr, Dave Timmins, Dean Ramsdale and Jamie Hoyland joining the PNE setup.

Aside from matters on the training pitch, Simpson had to look at rebuilding the North End playing squad. In the pre-season of 2006/07, Sean St. Ledger, Neil Mellor, Liam Chilvers and Danny Pugh were brought to Deepdale to replace the departed Tyrone Mears and Claude Davis, whilst Paul also suffered the devastating news that Youl Mawene would miss the whole of the campaign with a knee injury.

His first competitive match in charge of the Lilywhites was a 0-0 home stalemate to Sheffield Wednesday, with his first victory coming less than a fortnight later when North End impressively defeated Wolves at Molineux 3-1 in front of the Sky cameras.

A fairly average opening month was soon followed by an impressive run of one defeat in 16 games as Preston marched their way to the top of the Championship. A 0-0 draw at home to Coventry on November cemented PNE's place at the summit in a fantastic string of results that had included a 4-1 home victory over Leeds United and a gritty 3-2 win at Ipswich.

This proud achievement meant that Preston North End stood in their highest position in 55 years, at the top of English football's second tier.

After Christmas, Preston continued to battle away at the top end of the table and following a 3-2 win over Stoke City in January, Paul Simpson's side remained third in the table with 29 games played. Seyfo Soley, Michael Ricketts, Pavel Pergl and Franck Songo'o were added to the roster in the January transfer window as PNE strengthened in a bid to get to the Premiership.

Form remained rather stable throughout January, February and the early part of March as victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich were nullified with defeats at Cardiff and Hull City.

A big turning point for Simpson came in early April as PNE lost four consecutive matches against Leeds, QPR, Palace and Southend. The string of bad results severely dampened promotion aspirations but with four games left to the season, Preston were still in the box seat for a top-six finish.

However a 1-0 home defeat to Leicester and then a 2-0 loss at Plymouth's Home Park meant that Paul Simpson's side went into the last day of the season needing to beat Birmingham City and hoping results went for them elsewhere to secure a Play-Off spot.

Indeed, Preston got the vital win thanks to a Simon Whaley strike, but West Brom, Southampton and Wolves picked up points too, resulting in an anguishing seventh place finish for the Lilywhites.

It was a disappointing end to a season that at one stage promised so much for Preston with Paul Simpson commenting: "We did really well today, but unfortunately not over 46 games," following the full time whistle.

Players reported back to the start of this season ready to tackle another tough season at Championship level. With David Nugent sold to Portsmouth for £6m, Simpson had to look at other options in his quest for PNE to achieve their long term goal of Premiership football.

However it wasn't just David Nugent who departed. The January acquisitions weren't retained whilst Kelvin Wilson and Danny Dichio also left Deepdale.

They were replaced with tenacious midfielder Kevin Nicholls, promising full-back Billy Jones, and energetic forward Karl Hawley, who Simpson managed during his days with Carlisle.

Andy Carroll was brought in from Newcastle on a six-month loan with Paul Gallagher also joining in late August on a similar deal from Blackburn Rovers. Rob Kelly, the former Leicester boss, was installed as Simpson's new number two.

By the time Gallagher came round to make his debut away at Coventry, North End were winless from the first three Championship games of the campaign. This included a 3-0 reverse at home to Colchester which Simpson claimed "had to be the lowest of the lows this season". The team had also been humbled in the Carling Cup at home to Morecambe, 2-1.

Influential skipper Graham Alexander had traded the white shirt for the claret of Burnley only days after his 400^th appearance for PNE before the team got his first three points of the season in a 1-0 home win over Sheffield Wednesday.

Results remained rather inconsistent in the following weeks as Preston developed a strong base at Deepdale, a 5-1 win over Southampton and a 2-0 victory over Plymouth being the outstanding performances. This, however, was in marked contrast to poor form on the road, as only two points were salvaged from eight visits around the country.

Paul's final game in charge of Preston North End came at Hull City. A 3-0 defeat, which Simpson described as "the worst performance of the season", left the Lilywhites hovering only one place above the relegation zone with only goal difference preventing them from entering the bottom three.

The board considered his position in a board meeting following the match and acted to relieve Paul from his duties on November 13^th 2007.