Division Two: Preston North End 2 Bristol Rovers 1

PRESTON enter the new Millennium in an automatic promotion place in Division Two after a fine revival enabled them to leapfrog Bristol Rovers.

Another bumper Deepdale crowd - just short of 17,000 - watched Preston record their first win over Rovers in 10 league attempts.

Mark Walters had stunned the home fans with a close-range fright just before half time but Preston picked up the pace and equalised through a Graham Alexander penalty after Kurt Nogan had been brought down.

The cheering had hardly died down before Jon Macken smashed home what proved to be the winner from just inside the box.

North End boss David Moyes celebrated an undefeated run stretching over 17 games and said: "The fans are coming back in numbers because they are seeing a committed side trying to play entertaining football. Ironically we didn't play as well in the second half as we had in the first but I thought we were worthy winners."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.