1 | A busy 'day at the office' for our favourite visiting keeper, Antoni Pecora, this time with Nathan Pond in attendance.
2 | Fleetwood didn't impress in the first half.
3 | Pecora misses this Andy Bell effort; this Andy Bell effort misses the goal.
4 | More first half mayhem with Alex Taylor close, but still no goal.
 

Well, having given away more than our fair share of New Year’s gifts it is time to get stuck back into this league competition and make sure we do not slip up. We need to finish teams off when the chance arrives and hopefully we can do just that now that the injury / illness crisis is hopefully easing a bit. What better time than league game number 200 for a bit of magic for the Greenwoods to celebrate? I will put the full statistics in Tuesday’s Gateshead programme but it is certainly a fantastic milestone to reach especially when achieving such great success at the same time!

It’s a pity that we had to lose the League Cup trophy, but there has only been one real target since the opening game of the season. Nobody likes to lose, but at least we are free of all other pressures now and our goal is in sight just on the horizon. Have we ever beaten Marine I hear you ask? Well it has been a long time since 30th March 1993, but we did win that league game at Highbury 3-1 although  there were only 150 fans to witness it. So do not despair if we get them in the play offs, they may be from Merseyside but they are still only human beings not super aliens! 

Anyway a big welcome to North Ferriby United this afternoon; we all know what a drag the M62 can be from one end to the other. United have clawed themselves out of trouble recently but they are still well within the clutches of the bottom clubs so they cannot afford to slip up, especially as they have also played more games. Since we beat them they have recorded wins against Eastwood Town, Buxton and Marine before Christmas, and Whitby Town and Ossett Town this year - so they are no dummies. We have won our last two Ferriby encounters, 4-1 last season and 1-2 a couple of months ago, so we have to be fairly confident that we can prevail today. It is bound to be very tough though and we need to get off to a flyer if we are to stay ahead.

Witton Albion are at home to Ilkeston today, which shouldn’t cause them too many problems, so all the more reason why we also need the full three points and nothing less. This time last year, can you believe it, we had just drawn at home 2-2 with Frickley Athletic and were sitting in fifteenth position in the league! I suppose that’s why, with this season being such a vast improvement, any points dropped seems like serious news because we are not so used to it this time around! The play offs, should we be fortunate enough to be involved, will be a nightmare to watch. So much at stake in such a small period of time. I doubt whether I will survive to be perfectly honest and I will probably be reduced to a jibbering wreck long before kick off. Can we actually win the title and avoid all the messing about? Of course we can. It only needs a couple more Witton slip ups to make our position stronger and, with half the season left, there is still plenty of time to overtake them. Don’t forget that next Tuesday’s game against Gateshead is the first of our catch ups. The match at Witton Albion  in March could well be super critical and we really will have to be on top of our game that day to turn the tide. What a fantastic prize promotion would be; Town’s highest ever position and a super ground to go with it. There would be some good derby games too with Burscough, Barrow, Southport and Workington all in the mix. Many of the other teams were regular opponents of yesteryear and who wouldn’t look forward to a little trip to Telford? Oh well that’s the dream anyway; let’s see just how near it comes to reality.

Talking of Kendal Town, which we weren’t, I picked up an old Fleetwood v Netherfield programme on Ebay the other day. It’s surprising how such items keep cropping up online and I like to keep my eyes open for interesting ones. I am always surprised at how thin they used to be but that was normal in those days when up to date information was at least a week old! This particular programme bore the lucky number 1375, I wonder if it was? It cost six old pence and stretched to eight pages. It was an FA Cup special for 4th October 1969 and I suppose I was probably there. A ladies committee was in the process of being formed and any lady, young or old, was encouraged to get involved. Many of the advertisers were already involved with the club either as players or officials. The daily hovercraft service to the Isle of Man  was also advertised at fifty shillings (£2.50) for a day return but it was a three and a half hour journey just to get there. We had beaten Clitheroe 5-1 away in the first qualifier and then we won this game 3-0, before beating Lancaster 3-1 at home and then finally going out 2-1 at Bangor City. It will soon be July once again and we will all be licking our lips in FA Cup anticipation. If Chasetown and Havant & Waterlooville can do it why shouldn’t we?

One week today and it is the long old trip to Lincoln. It wasn’t so bad last year as we stayed over the night before but it seems less attractive this time around. The coach price is £15, which is more than usual, but it is a fair distance and the round trip would cost me nearer £40 in petrol. So I will see what the take up is and make a later decision than normal. I hope that we have more of a normal team today and that the sick parade is much smaller. Ricky Mercer has a one match ban but Jerome Watt’s suspension finishes today and it will be nice to see him returning to the left wing against Gateshead. I think we have missed him lately, although everybody has been impressed by Shaun Beeley’s surging runs into that area.
 

Climbing back on board the bus after the game, North Ferriby United will, no doubt, have been wondering  just how they managed to lose this one but, in truth, when they find the answer  they will know why Fleetwood Town are at the top and North Ferriby not. Fleetwood, unbeaten in the league since September, and currently missing five key players, fielded a reshuffled side with new acquisition Ashley Dunn on the bench. The weather was excellent, ie it wasn’t raining, and the pitch heavy but playable with a good crowd of 594

Fleetwood started strongly with Walmsley and Beeley threatening down the wings, and Taylor, Walmsley  and, particularly, Bell all going going close without worrying Pecora in goal. North Ferriby survived the opening phase and, packing midfield, managed to restrict Fleetwood’s supply lines, whilst creating a handful of chances for themselves, the best of which offended the linesman. Nil – nil and half time beckoned when Nathan Pond, a little harshly, was penalised for tackling just outside the right corner of the box and up stepped Michael Price to knock the free kick into the opposite corner of the goal.

The second half opened in a similar vein as Fleetwood continued to create, and miss, chances with North Ferriby engineering occasional breakouts.  Jamie Milligan, the architect of much of Fleetwood’s attacking play, switched with Shaun Beeley and was now stationed out on the wing where he began to find the space he needed and fire in passes ahead of the running forwards, of whom Andy Bell was now very prominent and a constant threat. The goal, when it came in the 75th minute, was perhaps inevitable given Fleetwood's ability to find an extra gear in the final phase of the game, Bell yet again running free of the defence but, this time, comprehensively beating Pecora in goal. Fleetwood now brought on Denney and Dunn and, with North Ferriby tiring, pushed on for a win. North Ferriby, to their credit, continued to defend well, albeit with increasing desperation,  and, with Fleetwood committed to attack, even managed to bring the best out of keeper Mike Hale with a double save late on. But Fleetwood, and the outstanding Andy Bell, would not be denied and, with less than five minutes remaining, he was through on Pecora again for his second.

North Ferriby played well; well above their league status. They came with a plan and used it to frustrate their opponents for much of the game. But Fleetwood also had a plan B which they deployed in the last quarter of the game to secure the victory, and Fleetwood never give in. Andy Bell was the fans ‘Man of the Match’, with a special mention for keeper Antoni Pecora who withstood the Cod Army barracking well and still found time to flip his gloves to one little cod after the game.

Two goals in nine minutes towards the end of this game saw Ferriby go down to a very disappointing defeat at Fleetwood. But this fails to tell the story of what was almost a mirror image of the respective game at Ferriby. The result means Ferriby drop down to 15th in the UniBond Premier Division, five points clear of the drop zone.

The Villagers led 1-0 with 74 minutes gone before a blatant offside decision went against them. The side second placed in the table then picked up on a lapse in concentration to go on and win the game. It was a decision which was soul destroying for manager Neil Alison and his players. They had worked so hard and led through a fantastic Michael Price free kick three minutes from the break. Allison was very disappointed not to have taken the three points; almost mortified not to have got a point, but also knew his side had failed to concentrate for the full 90 minutes.

'I can’t believe we have come off that pitch with nothing as the players don’t deserve this,' he said. 'It was another gritty performance which saw the lads work so hard it was untrue and we get this. Just as when we played them at home they scored a goal from clearly an offside position and go on to win the game. The second goal was our fault because we lost concentration and shouldn’t have allowed them to get into the position. We did everything right out there today apart from win the game. We should have led 2-0 because Gary Bradshaw had a perfectly good goal chalked off for offside when there’s no way he was. It was just a game which we weren’t going to win. I put today down to a late lack of concentration and match officials who cost us the game. I’d have been happy to have come here and got a point out of today but we got nothing. The lads gave it everything especially young Ricky Foster who had a tremendous game at centre back. For a teenager to go in against a very experienced team like Fleetwood he did himself and his team proud. I told the players at the end of the game this is the consistency they have to have to become a top five side. We matched them in every department but a very poor decision and having the goal ruled out turned the game against us.'

It was a first half in which Ferriby looked confident and created plenty of scoring opportunities. The Bradshaw incident saw the striker race through and put the ball in the back of the net before the linesman decided to raise his flag. Three minutes from half-time Ferriby took the lead when Craig Hall was bundled over 18 yards out. Price launched a superb left footed drive into the top corner for 1-0.

The second half Ferriby looked comfortable before the game was turned on its head by a poor decision by the linesman. The ball was played over the top with Andy Bell at least four yards offside. Outrageously the flag stayed down and the striker ran through to put the ball past Antoni Pecora. Bell then got the better of Price with four minutes to go and fired past Pecora to make it 2-0. Ferriby had late chances to salvage a point through Bradshaw and Russell Fry. But it was a game Ferriby could well say they had been robbed of a deserved victory.

There was little change at the head of the Premier Division with the top three all winning although both first and second had to come from interval deficits to overcome sides battling against relegation. Leaders WITTON ALBION were behind at the break to ILKESTON TOWN with their winner coming just six minutes from time whilst FLEETWOOD TOWN left it even later as they had only four minutes to spare when Andy Bell popped in his second of the game to beat NORTH FERRIBY UNITED. Third place MARINE had Karl O’Donnell to thank for both their goals against EASTWOOD TOWN who dropped out of the play-off spots as a result of their defeat. They were replaced by BUXTON who made it thirteen goals in their last three home games when beating OSSETT TOWN 3-1 to keep pace with GATESHEAD who beat STAMFORD 2-1. Bottom club FRICKLEY ATHLETIC continued their resurgence with a point at PRESCOT CABLES whilst in the two other top flight matches WHITBY TOWN twice led ASHTON UNITED only to lose in stoppage time whilst the game between WORKSOP TOWN and MATLOCK TOWN saw the lead change hands twice in a 2-2 draw.
 

FleetwoodTownFC.com || Match Archives 07/08