FL2: Fleetwood v Torquay - 18 August 2012

www.programmesofyesteryear.co.uk/semi-finals/f-a-vase/1985-fa-vase-semi-final-exmouth-town-v-fleetwood-town


www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FA-Vase-SF-84-5-Exmouth-Town-v-Fleetwood-Town-/140459062185

Go on, Buy it!

Any thoughts on the match Barts?

I'm pretty sure that TBGS and England boys Gennard and Rowland were in the team.

Neither a great game nor a sparkling or emotional occasion. There was very little sense of history. Fleetwood haven't been striving to get in the league for donkeys years and I guess everyone knows their progress has been aided by serious cash. Of course it would have been a great day for those who have followed the club through thick and thin. But, for the rest, it appeared to be an afternoon more for curiosity than passion.

Nor was a wow factor about the home team. Somewhat rumbustious in places they did enough to dominate early play through a mixture of their home assertiveness and our more cautious approach. To this end I spent most of the first half anticipating a Fleetwood victory. I also thought that, should we not concede, we may have a a chance of victory in the second half.

That almost came to pass as Fleetwood failed to deliver and we steadily improved without really playing well. A goalless draw summed the game up. It was what we deserved and Fleetwood, ultimately, were deserving of no more. It'll be interesting to be able to put this game into something of a context when each team has played a few more games. Yesterday it was tempting to say that Fleetwood may be over-hyped and that we'll be hard to beat but won't score many goals. But, somehow, I felt it was a day to reserve judgement.

As for the visit, it's twenty-four years since I last visited Fleetwood's ground. It's changed completely: I only recognised the old social club and the local surroundings.That previous game, against Hyde, was the last I saw in Lancashire before moving to Somerset. In those days I mainly watched Torquay United away from home and was oblivious to the fact that I was about to become such a long-term Plainmoor regular. I expected three or four years before moving out of reach again. Now I'm back living in the north of England even though I wouldn't hazard a guess as to for how long. Consequently I'm making the adjustment in a football sense given I currently have no trips to Plainmoor planned. I've also watched a considerable amount of football this past month, and if truth be told, it took me a while to get into yesterday's game. Suddenly I was watching my team again but I was on something of a slow-burner. Hopefully the adjustment process will be easier at Port Vale , Rotherham and Chesterfield in September.

And, for those of you who think upon Fleetwood as a sort of Lancastrian Brixham, think again. It's really quite different. For a start Fleetwood is flat and, when you go down to the town and river mouth, you'll see it's a planned town with straight streets, some pretty grand buildings and a several imposing monuments and lighthouse structures. Generally there's more of an impression of containers rather than fish; early Victorian urbanisation rather than historic and quaint fishing quays. There's also a seafront dominated by the old North Euston Hotel which was a staging post for travelling to Scotland before the railway was built over Shap. Working-class terraced housing around the football ground and typical Fylde coast bungalow land towards Rossall. No doubt there will be those amongst us who will, in time-honoured fashion, dismiss it as yet another "shithole". But if you've an interest in towns and quirkiness - as opposed to postcard notions of beauty - you'd consider it worth a visit and a potter. We sat in the sun until half-six drinking cheap coffee from a refreshment shack pointing out the landmarks around Morecambe Bay as far as the central Lakeland fells. Then it was back down the road which reminds you just how far it is from Preston and the M6.

There maybe a Newton Abbot connection as well. A pretty young Jon Beer and a pretty old Russell Peterson?

Yeah but the problem is you could say this about so many teams it could quickly become a recurring theme - "oh they've got a dangerous winger" x 23. Nearly all League Two sides have dangerous wingers

I hate to sound like a Hector or whoever it was that was whinging about how negative we were last year (even though I don't think we were especially negative), but it's a terribly uninspiring tactical choice considering how many decent wingers/wide players Ling has signed. Staid football and 0-0ing our way to safety isn't going to get people excited about the club

We should just go for it and if McGlashan tears us apart again then so be it