Fleetwood Town v Ipswich Town
Saturday 5th March 2022 – 15:00
Highbury Stadium
Pre-Match Thoughts - Dave
You got me this week as Mike is going on holiday to catch some sun in the Canaries, I didn’t know Norwich was hot at this time of year so you learn something new every day.
So we are at the pointy end of the season with 11 games to go where the top two (Rotherham and Wigan) if they win their games in hand are 22-25 points ahead of us on the table. The auto promotion chance is long gone.
If the promotion chasers above us win their games in hand would leave us 9 points off 6th place with the last side in the playoffs having 62 points. Under McKenna we average 1.92 points per game so based on his tenure here we could finish on 74 points if current form remains the same over our remaining 11 games. Last season both Oxford and Charlton finished on 74 points with Oxford going through to the playoffs on goal difference.
Ignoring the covid hit season, the previous year required 73 points for 6th place. There is not a lot of room for error in this league.
There is general consensus on the forum that the defence and central midfield pick themselves at present, with maybe some debate over the left wingback position, however, it’s the attack which is not settled by any means. Whether this requires consistent selection of what McKenna believes is his two best hopes or whether he experiments further. I don’t see Simpson coming into the frame unless we continue to fail upfront, or we reach a point of where we are experimenting for next season as the playoffs are out of reach. My personal belief is to go with Piggott/Bonne for this fixture as we already know the limits of Norwood and Jackson over the past two seasons. I would also have Chaplin behind the strikers.
The reality is in the summer we need to address this area if nothing else, as we only average a bit over a goal a match and you are not going to keep having clean sheets week after week. Equally none of our own players appear to be of Championship quality so we need new signings regardless.
In theory we are playing Fleetwood at the right time, they came off a 2-0 loss to Wigan last night and sit only a few points above the relegation zone, also we have the benefit of not having played mid week. Fleetwoods last win was mid January, ironically, versus Rotherham.
The good thing is that although the margin to 6th is not easily surmountable, there are still 33 points on offer until the season finishes and I suspect the law of averages means some of our strikers will start hitting the back of the net soon.
Safe travels if you are heading up for the match, and regardless of the outcome, lets be grateful we can have these discussions as opposed to 44 million people in Eastern Europe where football will be the last thing on their minds.
The Opposition – Fleetwood Town
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. The side's goalkeeper in the first of those victories was 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. The club finished in 10th place in its first season. As the NPL was one of several leagues immediately below Division Four of the Football League, this was effectively the fifth tier of English football, and the club would not surpass this success until 2010–11. Despite winning the Northern Premier League Cup in 1971, the club languished in the lower half of the table, finishing bottom for two successive seasons (1974–75 and 1975–76) and folded in 1976 because of financial difficulties. Its great players include the late Percy Ronson, after whom one stand is named.
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, it was moved in 1982 to the North West Counties League Division Two in its inaugural year, and promoted to Division One in 1984. The team 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. In 1990–91 the club finished fourth in the NPL Premier Division, at the time effectively the sixth tier. However, by 1996, this second club had also folded.
Re-formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers, the club was placed back in Division One 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 the Premier Division of the North West Counties League in 1999 and renamed Fleetwood Town F.C. in 2002. Tony Greenwood was appointed manager in 2003; soon afterward, Andy Pilley took over as chairman. Successive promotions, as North West Counties League champions in 2005 and Northern Premier League First Division runners-up in 2006, saw the club reach the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
Fleetwood Town won the Northern Premier League Challenge Cup in the 2006–07 season, beating Matlock Town 1–0, and finished the season in eighth place with 67 points.
In the 2007–08 season Fleetwood won the Northern Premier League, gaining promotion to the Conference North. Along the way they set a new attendance record for the division, and were easily the best-supported team in the Premier Division.
Fleetwood started the 2008–09 Conference North season poorly; with the club at the bottom of the league, manager Tony Greenwood, along with his assistant, Nigel Greenwood and coach Andy Whittaker, were sacked. Greenwood was replaced by Micky Mellon. His position at Fleetwood was made full-time in January 2009, a first for the club.
The demise of Farsley Celtic partway through the 2009–10 was detrimental to Fleetwood's campaign, as Farsley's entire 2009–10 playing record was expunged. Fleetwood were chasing promotion along with near neighbours Southport, and the ruling cost Fleetwood three points relative to Southport. Fleetwood appealed against the decision but the appeal was rejected the day before the last match of the season, leaving Southport one point ahead. Both teams won on the final day, giving Southport the championship. Fleetwood instead had to contest the play-offs, and after beating Droylsden on penalties in the semi-final Fleetwood won promotion to the Football Conference by beating Alfreton Town 2–1 in the final.
For the 2010–11 season the club made all of its players full-time professionals, though this resulted in a few players leaving the club, including club captain Jamie Milligan. The club spent most of the season in or near the play-off positions, eventually qualifying by finishing in fifth place. In the play-off semi-finals, against Wimbledon, a new attendance record of 4,112 was set in the home leg, but Fleetwood lost both games with an 8–1 aggregate scoreline.
Fleetwood's 2011–12 season was very successful, Fleetwood went on a 29-game unbeaten run, and were declared champions with two games remaining, giving them promotion to the Football League for the first time. At the end of the season Vardy moved to Leicester City for a fee of £1m, which subsequently rose to £1.7m—a record transfer fee for a non-league club.
Fleetwood had a good start to the 2012–13 season, and had risen to third in the league after 10 games. However, they only won two of the next 10 games, slipping to sixth position; chairman Andy Pilley and manager Micky Mellon fell out, after Mellon allegedly applied for the Burnley and Blackpool managerial vacancies. On 1 December 2012, following a 3–2 defeat against Aldershot in the FA Cup, Mellon was sacked as manager of the League Two side. Graham Alexander was appointed manager on 6 December 2012. Fleetwood were unbeaten for the next five games, and after a steady run of results had risen back to fourth place after 11 games. However, Fleetwood only won two of the remaining 15 games, and consequently slipped down the table to finish 13th in League Two; this resulted in a large rebuilding of the squad.
The 2013–14 season was another successful one. Having been in and around the automatic promotion places all season and getting to the League Trophy area final, the club narrowly missed out on automatic promotion, finishing in fourth place. After beating York City in the play-off semi-final, Fleetwood beat Burton Albion 1–0 from an Antoni Sarcevic free-kick in the play-off final at Wembley on 26 May to win promotion to League One for the first time.
Playing at the club's highest level, the 2014–15 season was very successful. After three games the team was top of the league for two games, and apart from a couple of games remained in the top half of the league all season, eventually finishing in a very creditable 10th place. Also in 2014, the club purchased a 57-bedroom hotel in Blackpool for the youth team; the following year, the club started to move into its new training ground in Thornton.
2015–16 was a difficult season. In July 2015, chairman Andy Pilley announced that the club's strategic direction would move more towards a self-sustaining model utilizing the development and sell-on of home-grown talent, rather than buying in players to attempt to climb the league pyramid further. The playing budget was trimmed heavily.
After a poor start to the season with only two wins in 10 league matches, Graham Alexander was sacked on 30 September 2015, with the club one point above the relegation zone. On 6 October 2015 Steven Pressley was appointed manager. After a season flirting with the relegation zone, Pressley guided the club to safety, five points above the relegation zone, with 10 wins in 35 league matches and an appearance in the league trophy northern area final. On 20 April 2016, Sir Alex Ferguson officially opened the club's £8m Poolfoot farm training ground complex with 18 pitches including a floodlit 4G artificial pitch, gym, cafe, bar, offices, etc.
Just before the start of the 2016–17 season, on 26 July 2016, Steven Pressley resigned from his position as manager. Uwe Rösler was appointed manager on 30 July 2016 who guided the club to its highest ever finish in 4th place but was narrowly beaten 1–0 by Bradford City in the play off semi-final.
However in the 2017–18 season Uwe Rosler was sacked on 17 February 2018 after seven straight defeats in all competitions with the club just outside the relegation zone by goal difference. On 22 February 2018 John Sheridan was appointed manager on a short term contract until the end of the season who successfully guided the club away from relegation and finished mid table in 14th place.
At the beginning of 2018–19 season Joey Barton was appointed manager on 2 June 2018 who guided the club to a 11th place with victories over local rivals Blackpool and giants Sunderland.
The 2019-20 season was unusual in two ways. First, the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) caused an early end to the regular season in March 2020. Second, the expulsion of Bury F.C. in August 2019 from the English Football League (EFL) for financial reasons meant the season started with only 23 clubs. Teams that were in promotion playoff positions when regular matches were abandoned went on to play the playoff matches in July 2020. Fleetwood Town were in 6th position and in a positive run, being unbeaten since losing to Burton Albion on the 7th January. However, they lost to Wycombe Wanderers 6-3 on aggregate in semi-final matches played in empty stadiums.
The 2020–21 season was also overshadowed by coronavirus with matches played behind closed doors for the vast majority of fixtures. On 4 January 2021, Joey Barton was sacked as manager with Fleetwood in 10th place with chairman Andy Pilley describing the decision as "a tough one for me to make, but I felt now was the right time for the club to go in a different direction." Barton was replaced by Simon Grayson who guided Fleetwood to a 15th place finish.
Grayson left Fleetwood on 24 November 2021
Steven Crainey was appointed as temporary manager on 21 November 2021, and accepted the fulltime job on 21 December 2021 for the remainder of the season.
The Manager – Stephen Crainey
Form Guide
Fleetwood Town Last 5 Matches – Currently in 19th place with 33 points
8 Feb Fleetwood 1 - 1 Milton Keynes
12 Feb Cheltenham 2 - 0 Fleetwood
22 Feb Fleetwood pp. Sheffield Wed
26 Feb Portsmouth 3 - 3 Fleetwood
01 Mar Wigan Athletic 2 – 0 Fleetwood
Ipswich Last 5 Matches – Currently in 9th place with 53 points
8 Feb Doncaster 0 - 1 Ipswich Town
12 Feb Milton Keynes 0 - 0 Ipswich Town
19 Feb Ipswich Town 3 - 0 Burton Albion
22 Feb Ipswich Town 0 - 0 Cheltenham
26 Feb Morecambe 1 - 1 Ipswich Town
Match Referee – Andrew Kitchen
FLEETWOOD TOWN 1 IPSWICH TOWN 2
, maybe they’re an “Everton” to the modern day Ipswich Town FC. 
All we are saying , is give us a goal