Fleetwood Town FC

Fleetwood Town F.C.

Fleetwood Town F.C. is an English football club based in Fleetwood, Lancashire. On 26 April 2008, the team won promotion to the Conference North, the sixth tier of the English league system, by winning the Northern Premier League Premier Division Championship. This was the team's third promotion in four seasons.

History

The current club was officially established in 1997 but, in two previous incarnations, the club's history dates back to 1908. The original club, Fleetwood F.C., were champions of the Lancashire Combination in 1923-24, and registered a hat-trick of Lancashire Combination Cup wins in 1932, 1933, and 1934. Their goalkeeper in the first of those victories was the legendary Frank Swift, then only eighteen years old. After almost sixty years as a Lancashire Combination club, they were made founder members of the Northern Premier League in 1968, finishing in 10th place in their first season, and won the Northern Premier League Cup in 1971. However, the club finished bottom of the table for two successive seasons and folded in 1976 because of financial difficulties.

The club was re-established in 1977 as Fleetwood Town F.C., with many of the original personnel. Initially placed in Division One of the Cheshire League, they were moved in 1982 to the North West Counties League Division Two in its inaugural year, and promoted to Division One in 1984. They reached the final of the FA Vase in 1985, losing 3-1 to Halesowen Town in front of a 16,000 crowd at Wembley. The club was placed in Division One (second tier) of the Northern Premier league when the league established a second tier in 1987, becoming the inaugural Division One Champions in 1988. However, by 1996, this second club had also folded.

Re-formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers, the club was placed back in Division Two of the North West Counties Football League (now the tenth tier of the English League system) and a sponsorship deal saw the club's name immediately changed to Fleetwood Freeport F.C. The club was promoted to Division One in 1999 and renamed Fleetwood Town F.C. in 2002. Tony Greenwood was appointed manager in 2003, and soon afterward, Andy Pilley took over as chairman. Successive promotions as North West Counties Football League champions in 2005 and Northern Premier League First Division runners-up in 2006 saw the club reach the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

In the 2006–07 season Fleetwood Town won the UniBond League Challenge Cup beating Matlock Town 1-0 at Witton Albion's ground on 16 April 2007. They missed out on reaching the play-offs for the Northern Premier League Premier Division by five points, after being two points behind the play-offs with two games left to play only to lose the last two games of the season. They finished the season in 8th place with 67 points.

In 2007–08, the club continued its successful run, and from November to April lay second in the division, trailing only long-time leaders Witton Albion. Two goals in the last three minutes to defeat Ossett Town on 1 March began a series of two draws and eleven victories (including a 3-0 win at Witton) leaving Fleetwood one point ahead of Witton going into the last game of the season. A Northern Premier League Premier Division season record crowd of 2,666 saw Fleetwood struggle to a 1-1 draw with Frickley Athletic but Witton were defeated at home, thus securing the Championship for Fleetwood. The club gained automatic promotion to the Conference North and the highest position in the club's history since the 1997 re-establishment. The original Fleetwood F.C. had finished 10th in the Northern Premier league in 1968-69, when the NPL was one of several leagues immediately below Division Four of the Football League, and therefore effectively the fifth tier. And in 1990-91 the second incarnation of the club finished 4th in the NPL Premier Division, then effectively the sixth tier.

Fleetwood were by some way the best-supported club in the Premier Division, their average home gate of 721 being 50% higher than that of the next club, Witton Albion.

The club had a poor start in the Blue Square North in the 2008-09 season. Their first home match against Tamworth which they lost 2-1, drew a crowd of 1,051, making them one of the better supported teams in the league. However, when they lost to fellow strugglers, Hucknall Town 3-1 on 16 September, 2008, their third successive home defeat, the crowd was down to 521. The following day the club sacked manager Tony Greenwood along with his assistant, Nigel Greenwood and coach Andy Whittaker, stating that "Fleetwood Town wishes to announce manager Tony Greenwood has left the club with immediate effect..... Whilst under Tony's guidance the club has enjoyed tremendous recent success. However, Fleetwood has made a poor start to the current season and it is felt the appointment of a new management team is needed if the club's progress it to be maintained." The club's former physiotherapist Steve Macauley was caretaker-manager for the match at home to Alfreton Town on 20 September. On 23 September the club appointed the Burnley youth team coach and former Blackpool midfielder Micky Mellon, who still lives in Blackpool, as manager with Macauley remaining on the coaching staff. Mellon will divide his time between coaching the Under-15 and Under-16 teams at Burnley and managing Fleetwood, with an assistant manager also due to appointed.

Reserves, youth and juniors teams

Fleetwood Town have a resvere team in the Lancashire League as well as a youth and junior teams.

In March 2007 it was announced that the Football Section of Fleetwood Gym would join Fleetwood Town at the end of the 2006-7 season, to create the Fleetwood Town Football Academy. with teams ranging from Under-7's to Under-18's. Club chairman Andy Pilley said, "I am thrilled to welcome the Fleetwood Gym Football Section to the club. We have long aspired to have our own Academy and we look forward to the day when academy products make the breakthrough to 1st team level."

Highbury Stadium

The original 1908 club played on a pitch next to the North Euston Hotel, where the police station now stands. Apart from two years after World War I when the club played on a temporary ground behind the Queen's Hotel on Poulton Road, they remained at the Euston ground until moving to the present ground next to the Memorial Park in 1934.

In February 2007 the new Percy Ronson Stand was opened. A £500,000-plus development the stand is all terracing, and has a capacity of 900 making the ground suitable for the Conference National if they should get promoted in future. In July 2007, further plans for the stadium development were announced which included three new stands. The plans were finalized in December 2007 and in March 2008, planning permission was given for the first phase, construction of the north and west stands. Construction began in May 2008, and the new West Stand, with 550 seats togther with disabled and press facilities and the new North Stand, a terraced stand with a capacity of 2,000 were opened for Fleetwood's first home game of the 2008-09 season, on 22 August, 2008. A new Football League standard floodlight system and perimeter fencing were also installed.

Current squad

As of 9 October, 2008.

Management

Position	Name	Nation
Team Manager	Micky Mellon
Assistant Manager	vacant
Head Physio	Russ Hitchen
Physio	Danny Moore
Reserve Team Manager	Steve Edwards
Reserve Team Assistant Manager	Stuart Harris
U18's Youth Team Manager	Mike Summer

Supporters

Fans refer to each other as "Woodies" or "Macs", the latter due to a pun on the famous music group Fleetwood Mac, although in recent years they have become known as the "Cod Army", reflecting the town's history as a fishing port. Fleetwood's Highbury Stadium is not to be confused with the now defunct Arsenal Stadium, which was generally (although incorrectly) referred to as "Highbury". "Woodies" often joke, though, that their Highbury is "The Home of Football" and style themselves as "The Northern Arsenal".