Welcome back to From the Finney!
It’s been a while since we last posted on the site as it’s been “down for maintenance” for what feels like ages but we’re back now with a brand new website for you all to (hopefully) enjoy.
It’s worth noting that you’re likely to come across bugs on the site and things certainly won’t be perfect. I know there are images missing from some posts but I have had to prioritise things in order to get the site live and going through over 220 pieces of written content adding images to them all, wasn’t a priority
If there’s anything you would like to let us know about, tweet us or slide into our DMs (@fromthefinney), or email us – . We will look into whatever it might be and hopefully get it fixed.
Podcast
The site now, hopefully, is a place Preston North End fans can come to for all they might need when it comes to following their club. We have now made more of a song and a dance about the fact that we’re the home of the official unofficial Preston North End podcast. We have a dedicated podcast page on the site where you can access all of our episodes, including From the Finney Meets… episodes.
You will also notice we have a ‘floating’ audio player on the site, too. This is at the bottom of every page you visit on the site.
It’s worth noting though, if you start listening while you’re on one page, as soon as you leave that page it will refresh the player so you will have to be aware of how far into the pod you were before you loaded up a new page. The same goes for the episode you might be listening to on the podcast page, as soon as you leave the page, it will stop playing.
The podcast is still available in all the usual places you stream the podcast so don’t worry about that.
Writing
We have condensed our writing offering somewhat. We’ve gone from offering a separate page for different types of basically, the same stuff. So things like quizzes, written interviews and our history section will all now be found under our ‘features’ section.
We’ve also introduced a new monthly, “Fan Letters” section. If you’ve got something you would like to get off your chest about North End, positive or negative, email us and we will publish it. It can be completely anonymous, we will keep everything private if that’s what you want, or if you aren’t bothered, we will give you all accreditation and link to any social media accounts you like.
If this sounds like something you would like to get involved with, email us on – and we will sort everything out.
Newsletter
Another new feature on the website is a sign up box. We will be launching a monthly newsletter with all of our content from the month, delivered to your inbox.
Should you miss a podcast, or a piece of content, we will be including it all in our monthly round up newsletter. We might even include some of the best content from around the internet about North End, too. We’re undecided on that yet.
But, we would appreciate if you could sign up to the From the Finney newsletter (better name pending), so that we can keep you in the loop with everything we’re doing here at FTF.
Stats
You will also notice a new section on the website, the stats section. Now, this is by no means comprehensive or as detailed as the likes of WhoScored or Infogol but in terms of what was A. affordable and B. doable on the website, this is where we are.
This won’t be perfect from the You will find the following in our Preston North End stats section: league table, score predictor, results, top scorers, top assisters, team form and a squad selector. So if you want to show your social media who you would pick for any upcoming games, you can choose your squad and share it on your social media.
Support From the Finney
Now, if you’ve been listening to the podcast recently, you will know that we changed our podcast host to Acast. This was done for numerous reasons but one of those reasons was the built in “Acast Supporter Feature”.
First of all, it’s worth making it clear that we are not club accredited media or press in anyway. Not yet, at least. We aren’t backed by a corporation or a business that makes money and supports us.
I started From the Finney back in February 2019 and Oli (@gorn__) was the first person to join me on this journey. Shortly after, Dan followed and the three of us were writing all of the original content on the site and if you listened to the podcast from the get-go, you will know it was the three of us who started that.
Things have changed in the background of FTF and as a result, there is now a team of writers, all of whom work for free for us through their love of the club. There’s young Josh (@JoshKnowles2002), “Big Josh” who isn’t actually big (@Josh_McLoughlin), Ryan (@RSSport2), Dan (@dtw_1995_), Jimmy (@baysidepne), Oli (@gorn__) and myself.
None of these lads, as well as those who have frequently contributed written pieces and much more to the site in the past, have not had a dime from FTF, yet.
What we are is fans and what we do is because we have passion. A passion to create the best Preston North End content on the internet and we’re in a position to do this because we’re fans. From the Finney is a platform for an open, frank discussion about the club and the goings-on.
We bring you a free, weekly podcast, and an almost monthly episode with former players/managers/staff or people from within football. With the new website now live, we will be going back to bringing you weekly pieces of (in our opinion) some of the best written Preston North End content (shoutout Deepdale Digest here, by the way) on the internet and it’s a hell of a lot of work.
In order to try and reduce the amount coming straight out of my back pocket and into From the Finney, in the past I have tried putting ads on the website but, in all honesty, I didn’t like it. It took away from what’s important and that’s you, our readers/followers/listeners, enjoying the content we produce.
We have asked for a sponsor on the podcast and as of yet, despite some tentative interest, nothing has come from that. This is why the Acast Supporter Feature felt like the best way to try and bring some money into FTF.
Thus far, it’s gone down very well. There have been some incredibly kind people who have donated money and it’s hugely appreciated. It’s contributed toward the cost of this new site which I sincerely hope you all enjoy.
In the future, I hope that I will be in a position to pay an amount to all the people who contribute to From the Finney.
So, our commitment to you right now is to continue providing you the best audio and written Preston North End content that we can, provide a platform for anyone to have their say and to keep the website ad free so as not to take away from your experience while you’re on here with us.
If you would like to make a donation to From the Finney to support us, you can do by clicking here – supporter.acast.com/fromthefinney.
We’re also on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Go and give us a follow if you aren’t already.
Finally, I would just like to personally thank all of you reading this right now for your support in our first 18 months or so of life. Our old website was doing incredibly well, we had over 42,000 visitors up until it entered hibernation many months ago. The podcast is well on its way to 60,000 downloads which is just mind-boggling.
All in all, I would say it’s been quite successful thus far.
Thank you.
