IN FOCUS FLEETWOOD

A good travelling MK Army can usually be expected to make the long journey in  what is a popular day out, after all what’s not to like, a long but a reasonably easy trip, a donkey ride from Blackpool and all the fun and games that place has to offer, so this will be another hard miss for fans this season especially as the weather is starting to improve.

Although a newish ground it still has an old school feel about it having to stand on a small terrace but extremely close to the action, as I’ve said a good day out, and historically we have had some good results up there, and the odd bad one, who can forget Tisdale trying to get a 0-0 draw up there, and of course Dan “The Plan” Micciche addressing disgruntled Dons fans after the game.

In the loosest of links this is where Russ started, a week after the Fleetwood game, Tisdale was shown the door and in came Russ, and the rest as they say  is history …….hopefully with the next glorious chapter about to be written.

A couple of interesting stats in this game, Fleetwood have failed to score in 9 of their 22 home games, they have kept a clean sheet at home on 8 occasions, and they have the meanest home defence conceding just 16 goals, and only on two occasions has a team managed to score two goals against them, strangely both in the last month (Crewe and Swindon).

Looking back to our last game with Fleetwood back in January, Joe Mason scored 3 goals in the space of 24 first half minutes. I feel for Joe as I do any player that pulls the MK Dons shirt on as it hasn’t quite worked out for him, and he finds himself well down the pecking order in our list of strikers . I’m not really sure where we are with Joe as a contracted player but I’m quite expecting him to move to pastures new at the end of the season, whatever happens, we of course wish him all the best.

The stats below do not cover the away trip of Fleetwood to Burton Albion on Tuesday night.

FLEETWOOD TOWN – THE STORY SO FAR – Fleetwood are currently sitting in 14th place in the League 1 table with a record of PLAYED 42, WON 16, DRAWN 11, LOST 16, GF 45 & GA 37 and 59 POINTS.

LEAGUE FORM AT A GLANCELWWLLW

HOME LEAGUE RESULTS 2020/21

Fleetwood 0 Crewe 2

Fleetwood 1 Rochdale 0

Fleetwood 0 Peterborough 1

Fleetwood 0 Swindon 2

Fleetwood 2 Ipswich 0

Fleetwood 1 Gillingham 0

Fleetwood 1 Accrington 1

Fleetwood 1 Charlton 1

Fleetwood 3 Doncaster 1

Fleetwood 0 Bristol Rovers 0

Fleetwood 0 Northampton 0

Fleetwood 0 Portsmouth 1

Fleetwood 1 Wigan 1

Fleetwood 0 Blackpool 1

Fleetwood 1 Sunderland 1

Fleetwood 5 Plymouth 1

Fleetwood 2 Oxford 0

Fleetwood 1 Shrewsbury 0

Fleetwood 0 Lincoln 0

Fleetwood 4 Hull 1

Fleetwood 0 AFCW 1

Fleetwood 2 Burton 1

Home record of PLAYED 22, WON 9, DRAWN 7, LOST 6, GF 25 & GA 16.

YEAR OF FORMATION – 1908

CLUB NICKNAME – The Fishermen, The Trawlermen, Cod Army.

AVAERAGE ATTENDANCE – Highbury (3,165)

THE MANAGER – Well it was Mr Personality Joey Barton, but he parted company with the club in slightly mysterious circumstances after a fallout with the owner and a handful of players and as we know he took on the job at Bristol Rovers to put some purpose back into his life. Simon Wiles the Youth Team Manager was put in charge until Simon Grayson was made the permanent manager on the last day of January of this year. 51 year old Grayson played 527 games in his career as a no nonsense defender scoring 16 goals for Leeds United, Leicester City, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Sheffield Wednesday, Stockport County, Notts County, Bradford City, and Blackpool. Born in Ripon Grayson has preferred to stay close to his roots when in a managerial role and hasn’t ventured further south than Huddersfield, also on his CV are Blackpool, Leeds United, Preston North End, Sunderland, Bradford City, Blackpool for the second time, Kendal Town, and now Fleetwood.   His stats withstand close inspection having a record of GAMES 703, WON 292, DRAWN 207, LOST 204 giving him a WIN RATIO of an above average 41%.

FORMER MANAGERSJoey Barton, Micky Mellon, Steven Presley, and Graham Alexander.

FORMER PLAYERSFrank Swift the England goalkeeper who died in the Munich Air Disaster, Adrian Alston who captained Australia in the 1974 World Cup, and Peter Ollerton who also played for Australia at the same World Cup, and of course Jamie Vardy.

PLAYED FOR BOTH – Adam Chicksen, Tom Hitchcock, Craig Morgan, Devante Cole, Chris Long and John Miles are the only ones that I can find that have played for both the Dons and the Cod Army.

FLEETWOOD MASCOTCaptain Cod.

FAMOUS FANS – Captain Birdseye, Captain Hook, Blackbeard.

SHOOTERS BOOTS – Callum Camps with 10 goals, and Paddy Madden who regularly scores against the Dons lurking in the wings.

CURRENT INTERNET MATCH ODDS Fleetwood 17/10 Draw 5/2 MK Dons 8/5

LAST TIME ROUND

Tues January 19th, 2021 – MK Dons 3 Fleetwood 1

Team – Fisher, Poole, O’Hora, Lewington, Laird (Sorinola), Sorenson ((Freeman), Gladwin, Fraser, Harvie, Jerome (Brown), Mason (Johnson).

Unused Subs – Nicholls, Williams, Davies.

Goals – Mason 4’, 21’, 28’, Finley 83’.

Referee – Anthony Coggins (4 Yellows)

Attendance – Behind Closed Doors

HEAD 2 HEAD

2020/21 – MK Dons 3 Fleetwood 1 (Mason 3)

2019/20 – NO GAME (Covid)

2019/20 – Fleetwood 1 MK Dons 0

2017/18 – Fleetwood 1 MK Dons 1 (Muirhead)

2017/18 – MK Dons 1 Fleetwood 0 (Aneke)

2016/17 – MK Dons 0 Fleetwood 1

2016/17 – Fleetwood 1 MK Dons 4 (Colclough 3, Bowditch)

2014/15 – Fleetwood 0 MK Dons 3 (L Baker, Grigg, Alli)

2014/15 – MK Dons 2 Fleetwood 1 (McFadzean, Afobe)

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