Match Report: No Giant Killing at Highbury

Fleetwood Town 4-0 Bromley

The magic of the FA Cup was bypassed on the North West Riviera on Saturday as Fleetwood brushed aside minnows Bromley in their First Round tie. There are 60 league places between the two teams with Fleetwood riding high in 4th place in League Two while Bromley sit in 17th in the Blue Square South and the gulf in class was evident between these two teams.

Before the game I found out that Fleetwood had captured the signing of Barry Ferguson on loan from neighbours Blackpool and he was signed in time to make his debut today (possibly not a good sign for him that Blackpool weren't worried about him being cup-tied for them later in the competition, but good news for me!).

Bromley brought a decent amount of fans for a club their size (obviously all full time fans who don't support bigger teams and decided to joy-ride on their local teams success!) and their fans were in good voice before the game.

Bromley started brightly and looked like they fancied getting at Fleetwood down the flanks but they failed to really threaten as their strikers couldn't really get on the end of anything. Fleetwood then broke down the right hand side and former Citeh trainee David Ball scored a really scrappy goal after Bromley just failed to deal with a cross completely. Brilliantly the Cod Army's goal music is pirate themed and set off many fans (included my Cod Army devotee, JJ) dancing along with Captain Cod, the mascot, to this.

This goal seemed to knock the wind out of Bromley's sails and in just 6 more minutes Fleetwood added another from the penalty spot when Bromley's keeper Welch was adjudged to have felled ex-Crewe man Junior Brown after Bromley again failed to deal with a ball in from the right hand side. Big Jon Parkin dispatched the penalty with minimal fuss and effort (after all he's not one to run up quickly). Amazingly this was only the second game Big Jon Parkin has scored in for Fleetwood this season - and I've been present for both now. If you're wondering Big Jon, I could be available to travel to all of your games this season - for the right price! 

Bromley tried to get back into the game and on their right hand side Tony Finn was quite lively and had a couple of efforts on goal. One particular effort was in a terrific position from the corner of the box and he really should have hit the target. Unfortunately, the lack of quality in Bromley's side was exposed again and he curled the ball high and wide. 

Bromley 'keeper Joe Welch then conceded another penalty when he was left exposed by his defence and the pacy Curtis Obeng galloped through (again down the right hand side) only for his run to be illegally halted by the goalkeeper. Big Jon Parkin thundered in the penalty straight down the middle and the tie was effectively over.

After around half an hour, Fleetwood's club captain Steve McNulty came on for a return from injury. He received an excellent reception from the Cod Army faithful - apparently he's a red and hates Barrow (but don't we all?!). He was the quintessential non-league defender with a physique that makes Big Jon Parkin look like an adonis!

Bromley came out all guns blazing after half time and they'd obviously had a rocket up their arses. They had a couple of gilt-edged chances but their finishing was woeful. Pierre Joseph-Dubois was particularly culpable after Fleetwood goalkeeper Scott Davies nearly gifted him a goal through a terrible pass out. Former QPR striker Richard Pacquette also had a pretty dismal game and was very ineffective. It was obvious Fleetwood had become a bit complacent after half time and with some better finishing they would have been punished.

Big Jon Parkin did have a pearler of a goal ruled out for offside to deny him a hat-trick as well. He hit a stunning half-volley with his left foot right into the top corner but was dismayed to see the flag up. He did have another good chance to score a third for himself when put through but he hit very unhandsomely high and wide and ended up getting the ball stuck in the roof of the stand as it lodged due to the brute force behind it!

All in all though the second half was a pretty dour affair and Fleetwood were happy to settle for a 3-0 comfortable victory and a place in the second round of the FA Cup.

Man of the Match: Former Scotland captain Barry Ferguson was clearly a class above everyone else on the pitch, particularly in the first half. He always found space to receive the ball from a teammate when nothing else was on, and he consistently found teammates in space when he played the ball. He tired in the second half and you could tell he hasn't been consistently playing first team football this season, but all evidence on Saturday suggested Fleetwood have a gem of a signing for League Two. He has since said he would like to stay until the end of the season which should be music to any Fleetwood fans ears!

J

Match Review: Morecambe 0-4 Fleetwood Town

Shrimps Battered As Cod Army T-Hake All Three Points

On Saturday the Globe Arena in Morecambe was the plaice to be as ESDB Football attended the ‘seafood derby’ between Morecambe (the Shrimps) and Fleetwood Town (the Cod Army). Both teams went into the match fly(fish)ing high in 6th and 8th respectively. This was the first time we had visited the Globe Arena and the first thing to say was that the bar in the ground is very nice and well worth a visit (home fans only though). ESDB Football made some new friends from Inverness who were down due to no football taking place in Scotland this weekend but luckily we kept our views on Scottish league football and its general crappiness to ourselves!

The game started off fairly evenly with both sides seeming to f-eel each other out and getting into the game slowly. There were a lot of Fleetwood fans who packed out the away end and seemed in expectant mood for the game. Morecambe fans seemed fairly quiet and almost nervous. The reason for this didn’t become apparent to us until after the game when we found out that since moving to the Globe Arena from Christie Park Morecambe have played 48 League games and won just 12! The last time these two teams played in the league was in 1993 and both seemed anxious to gain one over their local rivals with Fleetwood being the new squids on the block having had a meteoric rise from the non-leagues.

Fleetwood took the lead after 21 minutes after Morecambe goalkeeper Barry Roche had a turtle disaster and missed a cross from the right leaving ‘Big’ Jon Parkin (which he shall henceforth and forever be known as) to tap into an empty net. Morecambe were very blunt up front and there was a lot of industry in the Fleetwood half but no cutting edge at all. They were restricted to mainly long range shots and the front trio were blunt. Richard Brodie in particular had an awful first half and was booed throughout by the Fleetwood fans after he spent a period on loan with them last year. He seemed affected by the abuse as his first touch was absolutely pollocks and time and again he miscontrolled seemingly routine passes into his feet.
Fleetwood passed and moved the ball very well and Junior Brown on the left hand side looked particularly bright in the first half but they couldn’t really create any more chances and went into half-time 1-0 up.

After half time Fleetwood manager Micky Mellon’s half time teamtalk buoyed the players and it was immediately fruitful as they started by pressing Morecambe back in their half swinging in cross after cross. The pressure told in the 50th minute as Big Jon Parkin musseled his way into a position to have a free header after Barry Roche again flopped at the ball.

Morecambe quite simply couldn’t deal with crosses in this game and every goal for Fleetwood came from a cross. In particular Fleetwood exploited Morecambe’s weaknesses down their right hand side and Shaun Beeley the right back for Fleetwood had a very good game. He almost got on the score sheet as Fleetwood put together a lovely counter attack involving a lot of incisive passing ending with Beeley rattling the crossbar from about 20 yards out.

By this stage of the match it was all one way traffic and it was more a question of how many Fleetwood would get. Big Jon Parkin deservedly grabbed his hat trick in the 76th minute after another break-away left Andy Mangan in the clear and he slotted the ball over to Big Jon who had got his skates on (as much as he can) and tapped in for the match ball which he was very keen to keep as you can see!

By this time the Fleetwood fans were having a whale of a time and a conga line was even started in the stands. The icing on the fish pie was then provided by Big Jon Parkin as he unshellfishly put a magnificent cross in with the outside of his boot for the onrushing sub Barry Nicholson to dive onto and stick in. It was great to see Big Jon Parkin put on a goal for salmon else and it was done with the swagger of someone on top form, and capped a brilliant man of the match performance from the target man. Though one fan found it all too much and tried to storm the pitch pretty unsuccessfully, but it took ESDB back...we remember our first beer too.

It seems that Big Jon Parkin has definitely found his level. He was excellent on Saturday and his clinical finishing were a big part of why Fleetwood won so easily. A mass exodus of Morecambe fans occurred as they had haddock enough, and the game ended with no further incident.

Overall, it was an excellent day for the Cod Army and they were truly supreme over their local rivals, and if they can keep Big Jon Parkin in such good form all season they will definitely be in or around the promotion mix. As for Morecambe – they could do with improving their home form soon. The fans seem very subdued at the Globe Arena and that is probably not helping the dismal home run, and the cycle of this will continue until Morecambe start to pick up more victories at home or they could face a long uneventful season well outside of the promotion picture.

We would both like to thank you all for bearing with us through all the fish puns if indeed you did read all the report. We had to get this in for the Seafood derby and we can assure you it won’t happen again!


C&J

Yes There Is Football On This Weekend Actually

I'm going to start this post by saying I will try to make this weekend sound as enticing and interesting as possible but I'm not sure it will work very well since international weekends have become as exciting as Mark Lawrenson.

England are playing Moldova tonight in Chisinau in what I am sure will be an enthralling match. I actually think that it is a shame that Andy Carroll is injured for this match as he seemed to have a new lease of life last weekend in a West Ham shirt and when he is in the right mood he can be unplayable, as demonstrated by that monster of a header against Sweden in the Euros. England have quite a few injuries and the likes of Carroll, Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney and Adam Johnson are all missing from the game and John Terry is not 100% fit (though I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing as I think Cahill and Lescott are the way forward for England). Up front England look a bit light with only Jermain Defoe, Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge in the squad, but you would hope that they will still be too much for the Moldovan defence. I hope Oxlade-Chamberlain and/or Cleverley will be given a chance in central midfield to give England some dynamism which they will arguably be missing if Gerrard and Lampard start. The Gerrard/Lampard axis is tried and failed as far as I'm concerned and that was in the days that they were both more attacking and dynamic than they are now. The squad as a whole though is pretty uninspiring and only Ryan Bertrand is untried. I hope Roy gives the likes of Cleverley and Welbeck and Sturridge a chance to make England a bit more exciting than the usual dross we're used to but I'm not holding my breath. 

Prediction: Moldova 0-2 England in a dour affair

Now we get to the tricky bit...if you're reading this hoping for a Wales/Scotland/Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland prediction it's not going to happen sorry. Instead we're going to focus on a Football League weekend. This weekend if you usually go to a Premier League or Championship game then you should make the effort and go to a lower league club or non-league game and support the lower reaches of the game instead of moaning about the lack of football.

C&J are both doing a first ESDB Football day out (patent pending) and heading up to the glamorous Globe Arena to watch the Irish Sea derby between Morecambe and Fleetwood! The game should be a feisty affair as Sporcle in a recent quiz informed me these two clubs regard the other as their main rival (I'm not sure how true this is though!). Morecambe and Fleetwood have both started the season quite well and lie in or around the play-off places. I am particularly looking forward to seeing the battle up front for Fleetwood with Jon 'The Beast' Parkin going toe to toe with former Crewe defender Chris McCready. I am also looking forward to seeing the most unlikely looking winger in football Kevin Ellison weaving his magic for Morecambe. This should be a full blooded derby hopefully with both teams having little to lose at this stage of the season and I have no idea what the score will be but hopefully there will be goals!

Crewe are playing Tranmere this weekend armed with new recruit Chuks Aneke who was signed on loan from Arsenal to replace the departed former captain Ashley Westwood. Now to be honest I know nothing at all about Aneke and I'm sure not many other than Arsene Wenger will, but the fact he is at Arsenal says a lot for his ability. Steve Davis played with Arsenal coach Steve Bould at Stoke so hopefully his mate will have done him a favour and Davis has said he hopes Aneke will 'excite' fans and Saturday will tell us something about that. Tranmere have started the season really well and currently sit top of the table so it will be a tough test for the Alex.

Union Berlin travel to FC Ingolstadt on Saturday having not won in 3 games. They could really do with a result in this game having slipped to third bottom of 2.Bundesliga. Last time these teams met there was a 3-3 thriller and fans I'm sure will be hoping for a similarly exciting match! 

Lastly, having heard the apparently false news about Samba Diakite's extended absence from QPR being  due to depression (apparently he has personal issues to sort out and isn't suffering from depression) I'd just like to make a point that depression in football needs to be talked about more often so that the football community can understand it more. If you've never read it before Ronald Reng's book 'A Life Too Short: The Tragic Story of Robert Enke' is a superb narrative about Robert Enke's career and battle with depression. It's not a story that's designed to make you feel sorry for Enke just to understand what he and countless other footballers have gone through, so it is well worth a read.

Anyway, enjoy the international break everyone and we'll be back next week with a match review from the Morecambe v Fleetwood game as well as a recap of England etc.

J