The Cod Army

The Fleetwood Town Story

They play in Red and White at Highbury Stadium - but this isn't an Arsenal side

You may not know it, but the revelation of the football league this season has been Fleetwood Town.

They currently lie 2nd in League One, undefeated from their 5 games, with 3 wins and 2 draws.

In this blog I'm going to look behind the story of how they got there.

In 1996 Fleetwood Town FC folded, they reformed a year later as Fleetwood Wanderers, in Division 1 of the North West Counties Football League, 10 rungs down the Football Pyramid.

They were promoted to the Premier Division of the North West Counties League in 1999 and renamed to Fleetwood Town F.C. and were 4 rungs below the conference, the 9th level of the Football Pyramid.

The journey to league one began in 2003, as former Halifax Town striker Nigel Greenwood was appointed manager and Andy Pilley took over as Chairman. Since then, they have risen up the leagues rapidly. 2 successive promotions took them into the Northern Premier League Premier Division, which they won in their second season in 2007-08. This lifted them into the Conference North where they won promotion through the play-offs after 2 seasons.

In the Conference National, they reached the play-offs in their first season, after finishing 5th, however they were beaten in the semi-finals by AFC Wimbledon, who have had a similar story of a rapid rise to the Football league.

Again it proved second time lucky for Fleetwood, as they were promoted as Champions of the Conference in 2011-12. A remarkable rise from tier 9 in the pyramid to tier 4, in just 8 seasons, a total of 5 promotions.

But Fleetwood's rise was not to end there. Fleetwood made a great start in League 2, and were in 3rd place after 10 games, but the manager's relationship with the Chairman soured and Fleetwood fell to 13th.

Remarkably, their second season in League 2 matched their second seasons in the NPL Premier, Conference North and Conference, and they achieved promotion via the play-offs, at the end of the 2013-14 season.

Fleetwood Town League History
Season	League	Pos
2014/2015	Skybet League One	2nd
2013/2014	Skybet League Two	4th	Promoted
2012/2013	npower League Two	13th
2011/2012	Blue Square (Conference) Premier	1st	Promoted
2010/2011	Blue Square (Conference) Premier	5th
2009/2010	Blue Square (Conference) North	2nd	Promoted
2008/2009	Blue Square (Conference) North	8th
2007/2008	Unibond (Northern) Premier	1st	Promoted
2006/2007	Unibond (Northern) Premier	8th
2005/2006	Unibond (Northern) Div. One	2nd	Promoted
2004/2005	Moore & Co. N.W.C. Premier Division	1st	Promoted
2003/2004	N.W.C. Premier Division	3rd

And now with Fleetwood sitting in 2nd position in League 1, no one is ruling out the prospect of them being in the Championship in a couple of years, and who knows, on this trajectory they will be in the Premiership in 2018 and in Europe in 2020!
For a club from Fleetwood, population of just 25,000, it is an impressive feat. Combined with the travails of neighbours Blackpool, it is entirely possible that the club from the town of 25,000 could be above their Blackpool neighbours boasting a population of 142,000.

They are currently managed by former Preston stalwart Graham Alexander, who only finished playing in 2012, and has a veritable wealth of experience with 40 Scotland caps and over 950 games in all divisions in the Football league.

On their current playing staff, they have ex-Blackpool players Keith Southern and Stephen Crainey, who both played for Blackpool in the Premier League. They also have former England Under-19s captain Stephen Schumacher.

They've also managed to bring in 2 loan signings from Premiership clubs, with Stephen Dobbie from Crystal Palace and Andrew Campbell from Newcastle.

They have the squad, the experience and the backing to make the play-offs this season. Although, promotion might prove a step too far this season, Fleetwood like to do these things at the second time of asking, and I wouldn't rule that out. Look out Championship in 2016.

A more sinister tale 

Andy has piled money into the club 

Whilst the story is in the leagues of fairytales, rising up 6 rungs of the Football Pyramid in 11 years, it is also tarred by the background of Andy Pilley. A 5-live investigates programme back in 2012, found that Pilley was involved in mis-selling energy supplies to small businesses, by using 2 companies he was involved with, a broker Commercial Energy and a supplier Business Energy Solutions.

Although, Pilley denies any wrong doing, OFCOM upheld his complaints against the show. He is by no means the worst chairman in the Football League, but he is certainly not whiter than white. It remains to be seen how long he will bank roll the club, he has spent over £10m, which only serves to show, how wide the gap is between the Premier League and the rest of the football league. In the recent transfer window, £10m would have bought you Fraser Forster or Jack Rodwell.