Preston North End will forever be thankful for Blackburn Rovers and Watford mishaps: View | OneFootball

The striker helped make all the difference when the Lilywhites were struggling in the third tier

He may not have been the most prolific of strikers, but Joe Garner carved out quite the career for himself in the Football League, with the forward most remembered for his time with Preston North End.

After a number of moves around the EFL before arriving at Deepdale, the jury was out on the striker as he made the move to the Lilywhites, before embellishing his reputation as a leading marksman during his three-and-a-half years with the club he supported as a boy.

Whether he was scoring goal of the season contenders or teeing up teammates, his 151 matches for the club in all competitions prove just how relied upon he was this time a decade ago, as he helped his side climb back out of the third tier.

Watford and Blackburn Rovers will be among the sides to tell a different side of the story regarding the attacker though, with both failing to get the best out of him during his time at the club.

Joe Garner fails to deliver in Blackburn Rovers, Watford spells

Garner came up through the ranks at Rovers, but failed to make any sort of impression at Ewood Park, as he failed to make a single first-team appearance before moving on.

These were the days where the Lancashire outfit were competing in the Premier League, and they seemed all too happy to let their forward join Carlisle United.

After scoring five goals in 18 games on loan with the Cumbrians, that deal turned permanent in the summer of 2007, with Garner going on to repay that faith with a 14-goal return in the season to follow.

A seven-figure move to Nottingham Forest followed, although life at the City Ground didn’t exactly go to plan, with the Tricky Trees failing to see their striker hit double figures across two seasons, before loan spells at Huddersfield Town and Scunthorpe United followed.

Watford were the next to take a chance on the forward, but with the goals drying up, his time as a Championship striker looked to be numbered, with his poor return seeing him drop down the pecking order at Vicarage Road.

Preston North End move resurrects Joe Garner’s career

With his goalscoring instinct deserting him, Garner was left to drop into League One to try and get his mojo back, and a move to Deepdale proved to be exactly what he needed.

Having joined in the January of 2013, the forward joined a club who were on their knees in the third tier, following their relegation from the Championship 18 months before.

With consecutive mid table finishes under their belt, little was expected of the Lilywhites heading into the 2013/14 season, but with Garner up top, things quickly turned around with Simon Grayson in the dugout.

After failing to score before the end of the previous campaign, the feeling towards Garner wouldn’t have been sweetened by a start to the season that rendered just one goal in eleven matches, but all that changed as November hit.

North End fans must have been rubbing their eyes as their striker netted seven goals in five games before Christmas to get their season up and running, before a match-winning brace against Port Vale was followed up by a hat-trick against Ipswich Town in the FA Cup.

From looking like a forlorn figure in the final third, Garner was now proving himself to be one of the sharpest shooters outside of the top two tiers, with the goals coming at a regular rate once 2014 arrived.

Whether he was dominating defenders in the air, holding the ball up for his teammates, or simply tucking the ball in the back of the net himself, the former Watford man had rediscovered his goalscoring knack, and Preston were loving every second.

From midtable fodder to playoff contenders, Garner had played his part in the sensational turnaround at Deepdale, and his contribution to the 13/14 season wasn’t done when the 46th league match was over, for he still had one more trick up his sleeve for the end of season showdown.

You have probably seen it replayed somewhere, for it is a goal for the ages on the biggest of stages, with Garner’s sensational volley against Rotherham United lighting up the first leg of the playoff tie against the Millers.

Long ball forward. Garner chests. Flicks the ball over a defender, and powers a volley past the despairing Adam Collin to level matters, and send Deepdale into delirium.

He’s doing some sort of chicken dance near the corner, his teammates mob him, his North End legacy has just been marked, and more than a decade on, any fan could still picture the goal in their mind’s eye, as a childhood dream became reality for the man leading the line.

Every fan dreams of netting a goal for their team growing up, with the vision of a belting volley likely to be what most would have in their mind, and Garner got to live that fantasy, at that moment he was eight-years-old again, a child living his dream.

Alas, the Millers ran out winners on aggregate, leaving the Lancashire side heading back to the drawing board, but with Garner still in the starting eleven, they fancied their chances of going one better in the season to follow.

Joe Garner fires Preston North End to League One promotion

After the setback of the previous campaign, their was a fiery mood around Deepdale heading into the 2014/15 season, with the club determined to build off the back of a promising showing in the year before.

Garner too still had a point to prove, and three goals in the first two games of the season showed he continued to mean business in the third tier, before going on to grab seven goals in the opening ten games of the campaign.

This was a striker reformed and ready for action, and as the season progressed, his reputation for finding the back of the net continued to grow; with a four-goal haul against Crewe Alexandra proving as much.

With Jermaine Beckford alongside him, North End had a League One strike partnership to be feared, and so it proved across the year, as another playoff campaign followed, and this time there was no holding back.

Chesterfield were despatched 4-0 on aggregate in the semi-final, with Garner grabbing a penalty in the second leg, before Beckford took centre stage at Wembley, with a hat-trick earning a 4-0 win over Swindon Town to return North End to the second tier.

For Garner it was the end of a redemption arc, as he earned the right to compete in the second tier once again, and although his return to the Championship only returned six goals, he had proven himself as a top marksman during his time at Deepdale, with his career blossoming as a result.

It is safe to say that a move to Scottish side Rangers wouldn’t have happened had he not produced the goods in Lancashire, with a season in Glasgow followed by stints back in the Football League with Ipswich Town, Wigan Athletic and Fleetwood Town.

A return to Carlisle United seemed inevitable, and so it proved in the previous campaign, before going on to feature for Oldham Athletic in the National League.

Preston North End succeeded where many before had failed, and proved that if you get the best out of Joe Garner, there can be many magical moments ahead, just like that strike against Rotherham United, which will have left even more North End fans hoping to emulate their hero in the future.