Fleetwood Town

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Fleetwood Town
Logo of the association
Basic data
Surname Fleetwood Town Football Club
Seat Fleetwood , England
founding 1908 (re-established 1997)
president Andy Pilley
Website fleetwoodtownfc.com/
First soccer team
Head coach Joey Barton
Venue Highbury Stadium , Fleetwood
Places 5,094
league EFL League One
2019/20 6th place
home
Away

Fleetwood Town (officially: Fleetwood Town Football Club ) - also known as The Trawlermen or The Cod Army - is an English football club from the city ​​of Fleetwood in the northwest of Lancashire . After the first promotion in the professional football of the Football League in 2012, the club reached in the Football League Two 2013/14 promotion to the third-rate Football League One .

history

The first years as FC Fleetwood (1908–1939)

Although the club in its current form dates back to 1997, the roots go back to 1908. Under the official name Fleetwood Football Club , the fledgling club joined the second division of the Lancashire Combination in 1910 . In the second year, the rise in the highest Lancashire league succeeded, in which the club finished ninth, eleventh and fourteenth final table rank in the three seasons before the outbreak of World War I. After the resumption of official game operations, FC Fleetwood appeared for the first time in 1919 in the red shirt color with white sleeves, which is still used today by Fleetwood Town; previously black and yellow had been preferred. The reason for the change was the cooperation with a local fishing company with red and white corporate colors.

FC Fleetwood acted in the Lancashire Combination in the course of the 1920s with variable success and occupied a single-digit place in the table in six of eight seasons. The greatest achievement in this phase was the first championship title in 1924 with exactly 100 goals scored. During the 1927/28 season, the club withdrew from the current game operations and transferred the points gained from 22 games to the Prescot Cables , which took the place for Fleetwood. For the 1931/32 season, Fleetwood FC returned to the Lancashire Combination and by the outbreak of World War II, the club won two runners-up in a row (1934 and 1935). In addition, the (regional) cup win in the Combination took place three times in a row. At the beginning of the 1930s, Frank Swift , who would later become an English national goalkeeper, had stood between the posts in Fleetwood. In the year the war broke out, the Highbury Stadium , which is still used today, was completed. Before that, Fleetwood FC played their home games on a grass pitch near the North Euston Hotel.

Post-war years (1946–1976)

Only in the second post-war season 1946/47 did Fleetwood FC rejoin the Lancashire Combination's operations. The club was a fixture there for over two decades, but without noteworthy successes. The best results were the fourth places in the seasons 1950/51 and 1967/68. 1968 was then the year in which Fleetwood FC left the Lancashire Combination to co-found the new Northern Premier League (as a counterpart to the venerable Southern Football League ). The NPL was one of the fifth highest division in English football below the Football League, and the club struggled to keep up there. The only success was winning the NPL Cup, but beyond that, Fleetwood never reached a single-digit place in the league until 1976.

Financial problems eventually led to the end and after the club had finished bottom twice in a row, the club dissolved in 1976. A well-known nickname of the club established itself next to The Trawlermen in the 1970s, the name The Cod Army , which referred to the British cod wars (English: "cod wars") with Iceland and the position of Fleetwoods as an important fishing location.

Various start-ups (1977-2002)

One year after the end of Fleetwood FC, it was re-established as Fleetwood Town Football Club . For the 1978/79 season, the club joined the top regional division of the Cheshire County League and four years later the second division of the newly formed North West Counties League . In the second year (1984) there was promotion to the first division and in the subsequent season 1984/85 the entry into the FA Vase Cup final , which was lost 3-1 in front of 16,715 spectators at Wembley Stadium against Halesowen Town . Two more years later, Fleetwood Town was one of the many clubs in the North West Counties League that formed the (second-rate) First Division of the Northern Premier League. As early as the first year, as a second division champion, he was promoted to the Premier Division , the highest NPL division, in which Fleetwood then positively surprised, especially in 1991, with fourth place. Nonetheless, this upward trend did not last and after another reorganization in December 1993, which gave the club the old name FC Fleetwood, as well as relegation to the First Division in 1994, the club dissolved again in 1996 due to serious economic difficulties.

In August 1997, the next re-establishment took place as Fleetwood Wanderers and almost immediately the association accepted the name Fleetwood Freeport as part of a five-year sponsorship deal with Freeport PLC . Athletic degraded in the second division of the North West Counties League succeeded first in the second year of promotion to the first NWCFL division and after respectable seventh and fifth places in the seasons 1999/2000 and 2000/01, the subsequent 2001/02 season made for decisive Activities. After initially mixed results, the club achieved a comparatively good 14th place in a turbulent phase after a final spurt. Former President Jim Betmead , who was largely responsible for the 1997 rebirth, resigned from his position and, after a transition period under Mick Hoyle, paved the way for Andy Pilley , who began to steer the fate of the association from 2003.

Recent developments (since 2002)

With Andy Pilley, his companions Phil Brown and Kevin Pennington as well as the new coach Tony Greenwood , Fleetwood Town, as the club was called again after the end of the sponsorship contract, began to fly high. In 2004, third place would have already brought the first ascent, but a negative decision from the local sports facility prevented this. Only in the second attempt and after winning the NWCFL second division championship in 2005 was access to the next higher division granted. Only twelve months later, the march into the Northern Premier League followed, with Fleetwood Town defeating Kendal Town on the final day of the match for the direct promotion spot with 5-1.

In the 2006/07 season, the team missed the play-off games for promotion to the Football Conference , but consoled themselves by winning the NPL regional cup competition. In the following year Fleetwood Town won the NPL championship, rose directly to Conference North and also made further infrastructure improvements through further stadium renovations (including the 250,000 pound Percy Ronson grandstand). That the third promotion in just four years was not the end of it quickly became apparent and the renovation work at Highbury Stadium cost a total of a million pounds. After only five points from the first nine league games of the 2008/09 season, the former successful coach Greenwood fell victim to the growing demands and after an interim solution Micky Mellon took over the head coach role in October 2008.

Mellon led Fleetwood Town to a good eighth place and in the following 2009/10 season, the team aimed for the next promotion, which then succeeded after a second final table place and a play-off win against Alfreton Town . Even in the Conference National , the team had little difficulty getting used to it, and fifth place in the 2010/11 season marked a respectable success. Also thanks to an accurate Jamie Vardy , who scored 34 goals in 247 days for Fleetwood Town and then retired in May 2012 for a record transfer fee for a player below the Football League, there was promotion to Football League Two via the next championship title .

Even in the fourth-highest division, the club quickly found itself in the top half of the table. Nevertheless, the club's management dismissed coach Mellon in December 2012 following an FA Cup loss to Aldershot Town . His successor was shortly thereafter the 41-year-old Scot Graham Alexander .

Title / Awards

Lancashire Combination: 1

  • 1924

Lancashire Combination Cup: 4th

  • 1926, 1932, 1933, 1934

Northern Premier League Challenge Cup: 2nd

  • 1971, 2007

Northern Premier League President's Cup: 1

  • 1990

League affiliation

As FC Fleetwood

  • 1910-1912: Lancashire Combination , Division Two
  • 1912-1915: Lancashire Combination, Division One
  • 1919-1928: Lancashire Combination
  • 1931-1939: Lancashire Combination
  • 1946-1947: Lancashire Combination
  • 1947-1968: Lancashire Combination, Division One
  • 1968–1976: Northern Premier League

As Fleetwood Town

  • 1978–1982: Cheshire County League , Division One
  • 1982-1984: North West Counties League , Division Two
  • 1984–1987: North West Counties League, Division One
  • 1987–1988: Northern Premier League, Division One
  • 1988–1993: Northern Premier League, Premier Division

As FC Fleetwood

  • 1993–1994: Northern Premier League, Premier Division
  • 1994–1996: Northern Premier League, Division One

As Fleetwood Freeport

  • 1997-1999: North West Counties League, Division Two
  • 1999-2002: North West Counties League, Division One

As Fleetwood Town

Trainer

Web links

Commons : Fleetwood Town  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Fleetwood Town appoint Graham Alexander as boss" (BBC Sport)