THE only things which shone in the Media All Stars' performance were their red faces - and Shanks would not have been impressed!

The news team, consisting of Preston and Leyland Citizen, Lancashire Evening Post and Red Rose staff, took on Preston North End's veterans in a special one-off match to celebrate the opening of Deepdale Road's Bill Shankly stand.

But despite a comical intervention from mascot Deepdale Duck - who distracted the veterans' goalie to allow the Citizen's Nick Edmondson to score a consolation goal - the scoreline concluded in a miserable 10-1 hammering.

Playing in front of 3,000 people, the media team huffed and puffed but couldn't break the PNE defence down.

Veteran winger Ronnie Hildersley, who played for Montrose last season, was the most impressive player on the pitch and caused havoc down the media's left wing.

In fact Citizen photographer Rob Underdown was so tired of letting in goals that at half-time - with a 5-0 scoreline - he was relieved to pull on a PNE shirt and play in defence.

More goals followed in the second half as players such as John Thomas, Graham Houston and Andy McAteer ran rings around the All Stars.

But it was the Duck's unexpected foul on PNE goalkeeper Pete Sawyer which allowed the media team to recover a little pride.

And regardless of the score, the news crew were still smiling when they left the pitch - looking forward to having a go on the fairground rides.

Organiser Ross McWilliam said: "The interest in the day and the game in particular was superb.Everyone had a great day which was fantastic. He said PNE hoped to organise something similar in the near future."

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