Stamford - a tranquil setting........

Jamie Milligan slots home another penalty - 'queue' celebrations.
 

Another clean sheet for Danny Hurst, well protected by the boys at the back.
 

Tony Greenwood briefs Warren Beattie;Steve Macauley looks on.
 

Ricky Mercer smacks in the second as Stamford and the Cod Army watch!
 

And Phil Denney, hidden, pushed the ball past Ian Pledger before showing off his Shearer impression.

A niggling first 45 minutes was in stark contrast to the fast-paced game earlier this month.  Mr Murphy repeatedly brandishing his yellow card was the only real highlight of a rather bland half. Bonser took the game to Fleetwood on 10 minutes, but his move came to nothing. Milligan could only slice over from an Andy Bell attacking throw a couple of minutes later. Alex Taylor had an optimistic penalty claim waved away on 18 minutes. He collected a Steve Foster cross and Robert White’s heavy challenge was judged fair. Without a substitute keeper on the bench, Danny Hurst proved a brief scare when covering Gareth Pritchard’s widely placed shot. He dived awkwardly but managed to shake off a sore hip. Michael Brown’s 25-yard strike would have produced a spectacular goal, but it was aimed straight at Pledger. The flurry of cards began on the half hour mark when Peter Sturley was late on Shaun Beeley. The referee needed to speak to his assistant and Beeley followed Sturley into the book for retaliation. The best chance of the half came from a Milligan supplied cross, but Nathan Pond headed just wide from the 6-yard line.

The visitors opened the second half by asserting their authority on the game, with Taylor shooting over in the opening minutes. Fleetwood over-ran the Stamford midfield and soaked up any threat aimed at Danny Hurst’s goal. The referee’s tight hold on the game, and number of yellows already issued, meant it was no surprise when Bonser received his marching orders. In addition to Beeley’s card, Robinson, Mercer, Pond, Foster and three Stamford players were cautioned during the match. Following the opening goal, the final outcome was rarely in any doubt.

A fine second half performance has set-up the anticipated thrilling end to the season. Town now have their destiny in their own hands. Two victories, away at Leek Town on Tuesday and home to Frickley Athletic on Saturday, will guarantee promotion, regardless of the last-day outcome between current leaders Witton Albion and Worksop Town.

The Snakeman | Stamford Fan

Well, I would have liked to have got on here today and talked about a great game of football from two teams with everything to play for. As it was today belongs to one man and one man only - THE REF!!!! Upon arriving at the stadium today I was confronted by Andy Hunt - announcer and stadium DJ who obviously had read my report from the Gateshead game when I dubbed our stadium as the 'mecca of crap eighties rock'. May I congratulate him today for playing some damn fine tunes prior to the game - as I walked to assume my match position I was on cloud 9 listening to the mighty fine La's and there she goes. He did tell me to supply a CD of my own for next season so get ready for the sounds of the snakeman for season 08/09. As it was this could be a mighty fine way of summing up our survival hopes. We could have gone out there today and played like Man Utd and it wouldn't have mattered because good honest football was never going to win the day. Today belonged to a bent official and his two flag waving retards.

I know being a ref must be quite a lonely job at times. Everyone hates you, people sing nasty songs about you, spit at you from time to time, but there is no need to come to Stamford and take it out on us you spanner!! Right now there is some poor family of monkeys living in the Amazon that are being evicted from there home so more trees can be culled to make this referees next note book. Breathing on the pitch today was an offence to this ref who booked nearly every player on the pitch when in reality there was hardly a bad challenge in the game. At the end of the first half he  managed to miss a stone wall penalty to Stamford that even left Fleetwood’s travelling army bemused, but into the second half somehow managed to give a penalty to them that from our view point never looked so. To have gone in one up at half time would have been a big boost and who knows what we could have done from there.

As a result of their penalty we had Bonser sent off as it was only a matter of time before the ref got the red card out. After that we were buried by a fine second goal and then a breakaway third when we were chasing them as hard as we could. I can only assume that this ref is a seriously lonely guy who is unloved and seeks companionship which is why he took everyone’s number on the pitch. I suggest he gets he gets himself on the next available course of 'how to referee' before he bothers showing up here again. For any fans out there who hold a grudge I did manage to get his number plate as he left the ground ------------, a grey ------ If you see him on the road then either slam him into the central reservation or stick him in a ditch where he belongs!!

Nice to see a good following from the Fleetwood fans, even those who are banned from their own gaff. I do believe some where even banned from coming into the ground today which would have left them in quite a situation. Coming from a neck of the woods where you walk into a pub and are likely to be served by some hot goer wearing hot pants and nipple tassles, I bet a trip to the Bull and Swann would have been a right memorable experience for them, counting the buttons on the bar staffs cardigans.

Next week is now do or die. No point going to Marine and trying to hold it tight - adopt the Brazilian attitude and try to blow them off the pitch. Hopefully a proper ref will turn up next week and let us try to play some football. Lets get as many as we can up north next week and try to help the lads on to a big result - legends could be made.

Ben | Stamford Fan

Have to agree with everyone that the referee was ordinary to say the least. He wasn't going to give the penalty until the linesman intervened, but it was him who had the perfect view of the incident; he still decided to give it though. However, from where i was standing it did look like Bonser had his hands all over their striker, and when the penalty was given it was inevitable the yellow card was going to come out which meant an early bath for Jason and us facing a nigh on impossible task of getting something from the game.

In the first half we matched Fleetwood and could, and probably should, have gone into half time a goal up if Pritch had put his chance away. It was always going to be difficult against Fleetwood, and the referee didn't help, he was far too 'card happy' early in the game, in a match that had so much at stake for both teams he should have let things go and used a bit of common sense, but he seemed desperate to be the centre of attention, lecturing players at every opportunity for little fouls instead of trying to let the game flow. After the sending off I really couldn't see us getting back into the game, we tried what we could, but they’re not 2nd in the league for no reason, they looked very solid at the back, and apart from Marshie's effort which hit the bar we never created any clear cut chances.

Onto their travelling 'army', it was nice to see a decent away turnout for a change, it does add something to a game, even if some of them were completely hammered, reckon the bar takings must have increased dramatically compared to an average game, and the police did turn up in numbers in the 2nd half, must have made a change for them to have something 'proper' to do on a saturday afternoon instead of giving out parking tickets!

So next week we need a great performance from the lads to save us from relegation, I think that we can do it, the spirit in recent weeks has been excellent and the lads are giving it their all, we showed at Leek that we can get results away from home, so there's no reason that we can't do it at Marine.

UP THE DANIELS!!!

The Premier Division title is now FLEETWOOD TOWN’s to lose after season long leaders WITTON ALBION were held to a draw at relegation threatened NORTH FERRIBY UNITED on Saturday. Albion had beaten FRICKLEY ATHLETIC in midweek but were grateful for a late penalty to salvage a point at Ferriby on Saturday and with Fleetwood winning at STAMFORD they can now take the title by winning their last two games at Leek on Tuesday and at home to Frickley next Saturday. With GATESHEAD sat firmly in third place it is any two from EASTWOOD TOWN, BUXTON and GUISELEY for the remaining play-off places with the latter having to win their last game against KENDAL TOWN next Saturday to stand any chance. Kendal ensured they will be playing in the top flight next season when winning 2-1 at home to MATLOCK TOWN in a game where there was a spot of trouble with all three goals coming from penalties. Their point against leaders Witton Albion wasn’t sufficient to lift NORTH FERRIBY UNITED out of the relegation places despite two and two draws in their last four games but it really is a traffic jam at that end of the table. PRESCOT CABLES won a massive game against WHITBY TOWN by the only goal and both those clubs are level on points with Ferriby and Stamford. Only a point in front of these four are OSSETT TOWN, LEEK TOWN and ILKESTON TOWN with the former looking the most vulnerable as they have finished their fixtures. In addition, eleventh placed ASHTON UNITED, MATLOCK TOWN and FRICKLEY ATHLETIC are not out of the woods yet either.
 

FleetwoodTownFC.com || Match Archives 07/08