Fleetwood

Ground: Highbury Stadium

Visits: 1

Date: 29th March 2015

Match: Fleetwood - Preston 1-1 (League 1)

Attendance: 5 110

As I said in the report from Dagenham & Redbridge vs Wycombe game my original plan was to fly to Ireland on Sunday morning and then watch Ireland vs Poland in the evening. When I found out the League 1 fixture between Fleetwood Town and Preston North End had been moved to Sunday afternoon I decided to stay in England. The game against Preston is Fleetwood´s biggest of the season and you needed a booking history to buy tickets. I don´t have a booking history but after phoning the club I was given the all clear to buy a ticket. Once again being from Sweden was an advantage. There is no train station in Fleetwood itself and you have to go to Blackpool from where is a tram taking you to Fleetwood. Staying the night in Manchester I only haf a 75-minute journey to Blackpool. From the train station in Blackpool it was then a short walk to the North Pier tram stop. Blackpool is a major (summer) holiday destination but with heavy rain coming down the beach was not exactly packed this Sunday. The tram journey took around 40 minutes and once I left the tram someone asked me if I knew where the ground is. To me it sounded like a Norwegian accent and when I asked him he was indeed from Norway. His name was Trond and it tuned out he was a Birmingham supporter and also a board member of Supporterunionen for Britisk Fotball. A German friend of mine, Andreas, was also coming to Fleetwood and literally seconds after my conversation with Trond Andreas passed us with his car, good timing I suppose! Once at the ground we picked up our tickets and when Trond asked someone to take a picture of us it turned out that person was also from Norway. A friendly steward then took a picture of the four of us.

Established in 1997 the current Fleetwood Town FC is the third incarnation of the club which first formed in 1908. The club have made a remarkable journey through the English leagues in recent years. At the end of the 2004/5 season the club were promoted from North West Counties Premier Division and since then Fleetwood Town have promoted five more times. The 2014/15 season is the clubs first ever in the third tier of English football. Fleetwood Town play at Highbury Stadium, which nowadays has a capacity of around 5 200. The Main Stand (aka Parkside Stand) was opened in 2011 and has an all-seated capacity of 2 000. The stand is quite nice but I am not sure the roof provides much cover if it is raining though. Both ends are terraced and the stand opposite the main stand has around 550 seats. For this match I had bought a ticket in the Memorial Stand, the home terrace. After a visit to Jim´s Bar I entered the ground around an hour before kick-off. The rain had eased by now and despite all the rain the pitch looked perfect. Highbury Stadium was, for the first time this season, sold-out and as always it is a great experience to be at a packed ground. Preston brought 1 400 to Fleetwood for this game and they were in three sides of the ground, most of them in the Percy Ronson Stand behind the far goal. As the game kicked-off the sun suddenly appeared and it was yet again fascinating to see how changeable the weather can be near the coast.

In the first half Preston attacked the end where I was standing and created several chances before making it 1-0 in the 9th minute. Preston were by far the better team in the first half and 1-0 was a deserved lead at half-time. With so many away fans present I expected a massive vocal support from the away end but for some reason that was not the case. The vocal home fans were around 10 metres to my right and equipped with a drum the tried to get the home team going. In the second half the drummer manged, by accident, to throw his drumstick onto the pitch. A head steward intervened and returned the drumstick to its owner. The first half of the second half was quite boring but then Fleetwood started to dominate. In the 85th minute Fleetwood scored the equalizing goal and the home end exploded of joy. The goal itself was a very nice one, from the left-hand corner of the penalty area the ball was chipped over the keeper into the right-hand corner of the goal. 12 minutes of stoppage time (head injury) but no more goals and the match finished 1-1. After the match Trond, Andreas and I went to Preston (of all places) where we had something to eat and drink. Shortly before 9pm I was back at my hotel in Manchester. Tomorrow I go back home but on Thursday I will be back in England again!

main stand, rear