I wasn’t hugely disappointed when I heard the news that Paul Heckingbottom had been sacked, though you never want to be in a position where any manager loses his job. Have PNE deserved more than three points from seven games this season? Probably. What, or who, you put the fact that hasn’t happened down to is likely which side of the fence you are on.

North End should never have come close to being relegated under Heckingbottom in the 2024/25 season, having won one of their last 14 matches before the final day of the season. At the end of the final home match – a tepid 2-0 defeat to already-relegated Plymouth Argyle – I genuinely thought I’d be renewing my season ticket in League One.

The team responded by playing exceptionally well at Bristol City, securing a 2-2 draw that was needed to stay up. Exceptionally well for an hour, at least; PNE were 2-0 up after an hour and then conceded twice in 15 minutes. Results elsewhere meant North End would have been safe whatever happened at Ashton Gate, but to even get to that stage…

Heckingbottom got his players in during the summer – Lewis Dobbin, Alfie Devine and Thierry Small to name just three – and North End were in third place by the middle of December. They were 2-0 down against Sheffield United on an October Friday night and roared back to win 3-2; that was when you felt something special could happen, that the belief we all so often felt under Alex Neil and Simon Grayson – where you felt as if we could beat anybody on our day – had finally returned.

It would be remiss, of course, not to mention Harrison Armstrong: the most influential PNE loan signing of this decade. Armstrong took the Sheffield United game by the collar and ran the show, like he did in most games. It wasn’t a particularly outlandish prediction that he would one day play for England, but he will. And very soon, hopefully.

I was devastated when Everton recalled Armstrong in January but, like Sunderland did with Jordan Pickford a decade earlier, you knew it was coming deep down. And the team, in truth, didn’t really recover.

Last season’s slide down to 14th was concerning but there were mitigating factors: injuries to key players, no Armstrong, the state of the Deepdale pitch. Heckingbottom spoke on several occasions about how he’d had to alter the way North End played at home because of the pitch condition. The ownership spent big money on relaying it with the latest technology this summer but there was a time where you’d struggle to find a better surface anywhere in the Championship – that clearly wasn’t the case last season.

The manager had earned the right to have another go at it this season. There was been big money spent in the summer, and it’s hard to argue against the fact that good players have been brought in. We all knew what Alfie Devine brings and he’s come in for a club-record fee. Stan Mills is an outstanding crosser of the ball. Harry Clarke gets stuck in and looks like a proper leader. Leo Leroy adds bite in midfield and a passing range nobody outside of Devine possesses. Johnny Kenny looks a tidy player and links up play nicely.

The question remains – what do we do with them all? PNE now have three right-backs in Clarke, Odel Offiah and Pol Valentin. It remains to be seen whether Kenny can lead the line on his own effectively; he looks to be better in a two. Where does Devine play? Can Jusef Erabi lead the line, or play as a 10? Why didn’t we sign a centre-back? Maybe the last one can wait until January.

Of course, most of the new arrivals came towards the end of the window, meaning PNE put out a threadbare squad – after a less-than-ideal pre-season – to take on League One Huddersfield Town in the Carabao Cup first round. It wasn’t exactly a thrilling watch at Goodison Park but we got the job done, equalising to make it 1-1 in second half stoppage time before winning on penalties.

The 2-1 defeat at Bolton was poor but, again, there was the promise of more to come, and Liam Lindsay should have grabbed an equaliser. Wolves, who won 3-1 at Deepdale, possess genuine Premier League quality but it is the sort of game that North End would have performed better in during seasons gone by, and under other managers.

Charlton won 1-0 at The Valley, followed by a 3-1 defeat at home to Bristol City. North End were more than good value for a point at 1-1 in the second half and it felt like they would go on and win, but they didn’t. The visitors scored again and a horror mistake from Liam Lindsay made it three. The club announced two new deadline day signings on the big screen mid-game – the reaction on social media makes it a pretty safe bet that they won’t do it again next year.

The Blackburn win to open the account felt like a false dawn. Callum Lang scored twice in the first half but Tony Mowbray’s side came out firing in the second half. When they pulled it back to 2-1, it felt inevitable that their injury-ravaged side would equalise – wing-back Ryan Alebiosu had the freedom of the city at times – but PNE did steady themselves defensively, shut Alebiosu down and held on.

That result did at least prove that the squad has quality, but a manager needs to find the way to get the best out of them all game. PNE were outstanding for an hour or so at Watford, having gone 1-0 ahead early on and having had opportunities to make it two or three. But I was nervous when Heckingbottom took off Andrija Vukcevic – who very rarely plays 90 minutes and, whether it be purely a management decision or for fitness reasons, that is a worry – while 1-0 up and put the right-footed Offiah at left wing-back and Mills at right wing-back. Watford then used the flanks and scored two late goals to win it. There were other options on the bench: Heckingbottom had Small and Chelsea loanee Caleb Wiley at his disposal, but said later he was easing Wiley in after he had missed a lot of football through injury in 2026. Some of his substitutions were hotly debated throughout his tenure.

Then Lincoln at home. With all due respect to Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw’s side, who have genuine quality, battled hard in front of a rowdy away end and possessed a genuine threat on the counter, these are the sort of games that North End have to look to win. There were chances; Jordan Storey had a shot cleared off the line. But I never felt like we were going to score. The decision to take off winger Mills and put on centre-back Andrew Hughes, with the score at 0-0, turned out to be Heckingbottom’s last act as manager. Lincoln scored not long afterwards from a free header. You can debate whether the chanting towards the manager in those closing stages was beyond the pale – I would never do it myself – but people clearly felt that was the only way to get the hierarchy to listen.

So to who’s next. North End simply have to get the next appointment right. The new manager has to come in and motivate the dressing room for a start. They have got to establish a style of play and system that gets the best players playing in their best positions, and enjoying their football again.

The trouble is that nobody really knows who that is going to be. The uncertainty over the ownership has perhaps come at the worst possible time for this decision – I’m sure that, had results been slightly better, the hierarchy would have stuck with Heckingbottom until that uncertainty was cleared up one way or the other. That is one argument for keeping him on, but PNE would more likely than not, in my view, have been in an even worse position than they are now if the status quo had continued for another half a dozen games. At least now there’s a chance of rescuing it.

I must have seen about 50 names all mentioned as possible candidates, from the fairly realistic to the absolutely ridiculous. North End will, I’m sure, be rushing to Ipswich to pay the reported £8 million compensation needed to appoint the out-of-work Kieran McKenna, a two-time Premier League promotion-winning manager who will, in kind, be desperate to manage a club 23rd in the Championship. Someone else mentioned Paul McKenna – the legendary PNE midfielder with precisely zero games of managerial experience. Is Megan McKenna available?

Then there are other suggestions not called McKenna – Rob Edwards, Graham Alexander, even Steve Cooper – that you could see happening. Edwards and Cooper are out of work; Alexander is flying high with Bradford in League One and did well at Scunthorpe and Salford, but has never managed in the second tier.

Do PNE go for somebody outside of the box? Do they try and tempt a high-profile candidate that, right now, nobody knows whether or not they are likely? I thought of former West Brom and Huddersfield manager Carlos Corberan as an option for the latter category; he was sacked by Valencia the same afternoon as Heckingbottom. If anyone can get this side out of trouble, he can; he was outstanding in his two English football jobs. He described leaving West Brom on Christmas Eve 2024 to join Valencia as ‘the hardest decision of my life‘, but it did mean him being back with his family – maybe that has an influence on what he decides to do next.

In the meantime, first team coach Jason Euell is preparing the team for QPR and will, as things stand, take charge at Loftus Road. Hopefully the new management team keeps the former Premier League striker in place, as PNE’s attacking play noticeably improved following his arrival last summer.

North End return to Deepdale on October 10, when Alex Neil once again returns to the dugout with Millwall. I am one of, I’m sure, many that would be absolutely delighted if Neil was in the home dugout. He was applauded by all four sides of the ground when he came here last season; what a story, and surely a popular one, it would be if he came back for a second spell.

But whatever happens, the PNE landscape will be much different come that day than it is now. It is the start of a new era: the new head coach, or manager, will have had three weeks to work with the squad during this unusually long upcoming international break. Whoever that is just needs to bring some hope, belief and excitement back to Deepdale – they’ll be backed all the way if they do.