JON Macken has ended months of speculation - and decided to stay at Deepdale.

After hitting North End while they were down early on in the season with his shock transfer request, the striker has spent months in limbo waiting for a club to come in for him.

An offer from Wolves for £4million was rejected by PNE, who said the 24-year-old was worth more.

But ahead of last night's game, it was announced Macken would be staying at Deepdale and had been taken off the transfer list.

He was last season's top scorer, but has struggled to find form of late, something he hopes will change now that this situation is confirmed.

He said: " "Being on the transfer list has certainly not helped the team over the last few weeks, one main reason being that I've not been scoring the goals.

"I'm not saying this is going to change a lot of things performance wise as that will come down to a lot of hard work, but I think it is just the first step towards improving myself as a player.

"It has affected me. It affects people in different ways. While I've been on the transfer list I've always felt that it was something sort of hovering over my head, where I have to over-achieve or do something special in certain ways.

"I'm not looking for any sympathy, but hopefully now things can settle down a bit and I can get back to scoring a good few goals."

Macken's public decision to ask for a transfer, plus Wolves' public announcement of their interest in him, enraged Moyes.

He immediatley dropped Macken, only bringing him on as substitute. He now faces battle against David Healy, Richard Cresswell and Steve Basham to get back in the team.

And while he may not have bagged that many goals this season, he has shot a couple of memorable ones - not least the one from the halfway line against Manchester City in October.

PNE travel to Maine Road a week on Sunday.