Consider the most successful clubs over the last ten years and certain names will spring quickly to mind… Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United. However, few can claim to have matched League One side, Fleetwood Town, who have experienced a meteoric rise up the football pyramid. Six promotions in ten years is an unrivalled achievement and for long-serving central defender, Nathan Pond; the Guinness Book of Records beckoned to recognise his feat of playing for one club in seven different divisions and scoring at every level. The journey from North-West counties football has galvanised a town lacking good news stories since the demise of the fishing industry. The world of football has been captivated.
It would be tempting to think that the journey can continue, but, in the upper echelons of the football pyramid, life can be harsh and expensive. As the 2015-16 season approaches, a new blueprint has emerged; now, we find a club taking stock and developing off the field as much as on it. Emphasis has been firmly placed on producing young players who can go on to play in the Football League. The Development and Youth Teams have been afforded such a priority that both squads have been abroad last week for pre-season training. Out of this set up has already emerged rising talents such as Nick Haughton, Tyler Forbes and Ash Hunter, all of whom played for the first team in last season’s League One campaign.
Key to this development is a new multi-million pound state-of-the-art training centre several miles from the club’s Highbury ground in Fleetwood. This is designed for players and community use alike. Andy Pilley, a local businessman who took over as chairman of Fleetwood a decade or so ago, has always seen the embracing of the local community as vital to the success of the club. Pilley has put millions into Fleetwood Town, attracting jealousy and envy from certain quarters, but try telling that to the Cod Army who have cheered every step of the way. The chairman is determined to see the club standing self-sufficient and delivering quality in all departments.
Dale Frith, for instance, is a groundsman who has been rewarded with Groundsman of the Year in both Conference and League Two. The appointment of a Technical Director, former Bolton Wanderers and Iceland full-back, Grétar Steinsson, has added a new dimension. One of the most recent innovative developments has been a partnership with Uzbekistan club, Lokomotiv Tashkent.
The fans’ catchphrase is ‘living the dream’, and they have had some wonderful occasions to celebrate; none more so than their victory at Wembley over Burton Albion in the League Two play-off final back in May 2014. A first season in League One brought victory at Sheffield United, arguably the biggest league win in the club’s history, two huge occasions against local rivals Preston North End and a top ten finish in the league. In the case of clubs like Sheffield United and Coventry City, you could have fitted the population of Fleetwood into the stadium with room to spare. At the end of the season, there was an England debut for Jamie Vardy, the man who spearheaded Fleetwood’s rise into the Football League just three years earlier.
How many would have seen all that coming in the days when Town entertained fewer than a hundred spectators not too many seasons ago?
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