2012 Prediction League; Game 19 v Fleetwood Town FC (away)

Div3North · 16-11-2012, 17:03

Fleetwood Town FC

V

Accrington Stanley

2012/13 Prediction League – Game 19; v Fleetwood (away)

This is the third incarnation of the club; they first formed in 1908 (as Fleetwood FC), folding in 1976 because of financial problems, only to re-form the following year (as Fleetwood Town FC); the “first” Fleetwood played in the Lancashire Combination, and won the Lancs Combination Cup with one Frank Swift,

then 18, in goal, and were founder members of the Northern Premier League (remember that?

); “Fleetwood 2” (not to be confused with “Fleetwood 2; The Revenge”

) played in the Cheshire League (who moved Fleetwood?

), then the North West Counties League – reaching the final of the FA Vase in 1985, losing 3-1 to Halesowen Town at Wembley – before moving to the Northern Premier League Div One in 1987 (which they won), joining the NPL Premier Division where they stayed until they, too, folded.

Incarnation 3 began in 1997 as “Fleetwood Wanderers”

, which very quickly became “Fleetwood Freeport FC”

(sponsorship!), and “Fleetwood Town FC” in 2002. Their rise up from 10th to 4th tier of the Football Pyramid is well recorded …..

With elevation to the League structure comes hard decisions about your playing staff; do you dare stick with those who got you there? Fleetwood’s answer, in practice, was “No”; 15 players left

, most notably 27 year-old Brazilian striker Magno Viera (whose cv has 10 clubs on it, including Carlisle, Barnet, Crawley, Wycombe and Ebbsfleet), who left Highbury after 2 seasons - during which he’d hit 31 goals in 64 games – for the joys of Forest Green Rovers; a certain Peter Cavanagh joined Rochdale (didn’t everybody?

); and Jamie Vardy (25), who started with Stocksbridge Park Steels (66 goals in 107

), went on to FC Halifax (29 in 41

) and then Fleetwood (34 in 40

), unsurprisingly got snapped up by Championship side Leicester (where he’s managed 4 in 9) for a reported 7 figure fee. Cavanagh and Vardy are actually the only two of the 15 who left who stayed in the League, all the others being BSP or lower.

In came ……….. everybody who could walk, basically

; 20 new signings in all (their squad being at least 27 strong), including CB Youl Mawene (32), French (born in Caen), who started with Lens, went to Derby for £1/2 million

, then to PNE, and then to Panserraikos (Serres, in Macedonia, before you ask

), before joining Aberdeen; ex Rangers, Dunfermline, Aberdeen and PNE MF Barry Nicholson (33); Kieran Charnock (27) from Morecambe (who’s currently on loan at Macclesfield); 30 year-old goalscorer Jon Parkin, ex Cardiff; and striker Steven Gillespie (27), with Bristol City, Cheltenham and Colchester behind him. Their recent raids on the loan market brought them Barnsley (and Villa, Wolves and Blackpool) Welsh international defender Rob Edwards (29); former Rangers and Scotland captain Barry Ferguson, now 34, a MF who’s also played for Blackburn and Birmingham; Curtis Obeng (23), a full back bought at the start of the year by Swansea from Wrexham; Blackpool’s 19 year-old striker Tom Barkhuizen, who got 11 goals in 38 games on loan at Hereford last year; Blackpool (again – there’s a pattern developing here

) also loaned defender Ashley (Ash) Eastham (21), who had been twice to Cheltenham and to Bury (amongst others) on loan, but who only stayed a month, playing once (JPT loss at Rochdale), and who’s actually now at Notts County. Eastham has played once for Blackpool, against Stoke at the Britannia in a 3rd Round ‘League Cup’ game in 2009/10; he said afterwards,

"This is without doubt the biggest moment of my career. It was great to walk out and look at the surroundings. It is a fantastic atmosphere when you are on the pitch. I'll never forget my debut, and especially because of the type of game it was."

They lost 4-3; that’s the type of game it was …….

They may be back in the loan market, looking for a new striker; Gillespie, Parkin and Andy Mangan are all out injured, Mangan having had surgery on a knee injury which has cost him 10 games so far, and may keep him out for several months longer.

They left the CapOne Cup in Round One, 1-0 at home to Forest, and the Tinpot (also in Round One) on penalties at Coleydale after a 2-2 draw; they did get through the first round of the FA Cup (questions might well have been asked if they hadn’t, since they beat Bromley 3-0 at home!), which gets them Aldershot at home and a decent chance of Round 3.

After their first three League games their record was a wonderful W1 D1 L1 F1 A1

. They currently lie 5th with 28 points, their home record being W3 D3 L2 F11 A10 and the away record being W4 D4 L1 F13 A6 for an overall P17 W7 D7 L3 F24 A16 – and that despite having only drawn 5 of their last 7 (2-2 at Cheltenham and at Exeter, 0-0 at Rochdale, and 1-1 at home to the Wombles and to Rotherham (who lost 5-0 at Dagenham, you’ll have seen, incurring the displeasure of that nice Mr Evans , who called it “the worst performance any team had given him in his managerial career”

.) Shame. “Evans Out!”

The other two of those 7 games saw them lose 1-0 at home to Wycombe but win 2-1 at Snakefield …………..

Leading scorer (in total they’ve hit 29 in 20 games) – apart from the the injured Jon Parkin with 6 and Steven Gillespie with 4 – is Junior Brown (shown as a defender) with 6. Obviously we’ve never met them in the League, so all to play for ……….. Bragging Rights time!

Deadline is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45pm on Tuesday 20th November; hard one to call, this; they’re one of the favourites for promotion (more money than us!

) but aren’t quite getting it right yet; we’re at the start of something Good

(shades of Herman and his Hermits!). Get your predictions in, please, and never mind the gloom-mongers who tell you we’ll lose ……….Keep the Faith; onwards and upwards Team LeamAndBeattieAndANewAssistantManagerIfWeCanFindOne!

Good luck to everyone ……….and thanks for playing!