Former Preston North End and Scotland manager Craig Brown dies aged 82

Brown was a legend of Scottish football and was the last man to lead the national team to the World Cup, in 1998, just two years after steering them to qualify for the 1996 Euros.

He had worked his way up through the ranks coaching in the national setup, having initially started out his managerial career at Clyde. He was U21s boss for Scotland before being appointed manager of the senior side, but after two tournaments and failure to reach the following Euros and World Cup, he departed the Scotland setup after 15 years. He took charge of 70 international games, more than any other Scotland manager.

Next up was PNE as he was appointed manager in April 2002 and in his first full season the Lilywhites finished 12th, 13 points off a play-off place. He followed that up with a 15th place finish in 2003-04, eight points clear of the relegation zone and 14 points away from the top six.

He was sacked early in the following season and replaced by Billy Davies, the team he inherited going on to reach the play-off final. Although Browne did not bring great success to Deepdale, he did acquire many of the most popular players to play for the club in recent times. In his final season before departing, David Nugent, Callum Davidson, Youl Mawene, Carlo Nash and Matt Hill were brought in.

In previous years he had signed Ricardo Fuller, Claude Davis and Brian O’Neil amongst others, many of those players going on to provide success despite the Scot’s departure.

Brown went on to manage Motherwell and Aberdeen after leaving North End, retiring from management in 2013 and accepting a position on the board at the latter.

Scottish football is now mourning the loss of a legend of their game.