Before his landmark match the Scot reflects on nearly crying at Preston, player power and being on the fast train at West Ham
“You don’t know how it’s flown past,” David Moyes says as he reflects on a journey that began with a trip to Moss Rose to face Macclesfield in the
Football League Trophy on 13 January 1998. The memories from that night come flooding back and Moyes, who will reach 1,000 games as a manager when West Ham visit Genk in the Europa League on Thursday evening, knows that he has come a long way since agreeing to take over at Preston 23 years ago.
It has certainly been an eventful ride and, while the Scot had long felt that he wanted to be a manager, he remembers feeling unsure about where it would lead when Preston asked him to step up after the departure of Gary Peters. Moyes, who was Peters’s No 2, was only 34 and still on a playing contract when his big chance arrived. “It was Joe Royle and Ian Rush the supporters were wanting as manager,” says Moyes, who had no way of knowing whether he was going to be able to justify Preston’s faith.