Hello and how are you?
Tuesday the 27th of October sees the Mighty Cannon take on League Two stalwarts, Fleetwood Town, in the next round of the Carabao/ League Cup. KO is at 8.00pm local time. Expected weather us 15° ( feels like 7°) and between 19 and 23% chance of rain.
Millions of years ago I was playing in a five aside tournament on a cold Saturday on the fields of Chaulden in Hemel Hempstead near to my Aunts house. We had a pretty good team and went to the semis. Every time we won, one of the lads Dads, shared out a load of sweets, from what seemed to be an inexhaustible supply. Trouble was the further we went, the less there were. At one point he said all Ive got left are Fishermen’s friends.
I didn’t know anything about them; I thought maybe they were some obscure import from Norway. Little did I know, they originated in Fleetwood Lancs, and are still produced there and distributed world-wide, when most other industries including North Atlantic fishing has fizzled out without much care or compassion. Most people internationally probably haven’t a clue where Fleetwood is but they know Fishermen’s Friends.
Ive never been to Fleetwood, but knew of it as I did a bit of work once for Preston Council collecting data from drivers concerning their destination( now they just use the data from social media), and all the names of those towns in that area; Cleveleys, Poulton Le Fylde etc are lodged in my head. Sometimes those lists of names come flying back in my mind for no explicable reason.
So, I spent a bit of time on Sunday wandering around the town on Google maps and reading on Wikipedia about the town, football club and their intertwining histories, which is one of the things that’s enjoyable about doing an article, finding out about your opponent and their history. Made me wish when I lived in that area that I had explored the coast and those towns.
This match is a potential banana skin for us, and the best night out ever for the Cod Army. And should they pull off a miracle, I won’t begrudge it any more than I did Oxford when they beat us in the early 80s, also in the League Cup. If we can’t be a bit generous (in the unlikely event of us losing) then what does it say about us?
Their stadium is called Highbury and they play in a similar kit to ours, white sleeves and red top. 5, 327 can squeeze into their stadium, and 941 Arsenal away fans are expected to turn up, so it’s going to be one surreal night. But (to me) games like this are what keep us away from the clutches of a bloated,monied, elitist super league (although the CL is that is shadowy form?), and to me, everyone deserves a crack on success and the cup competitions are better for it, and matches like this.
Fleetwood go into this having lost to Exeter and Cheltenham and currently sit in 18th position in League Two. They’ve beaten Chesterfield, Shrewsbury and Sheffield United to get to this head-to-head with us. The Fishermen have lost only once though in their last ten home games in all tournaments.
I’m sure there will be a shuffle around for us, Red Max and Marli will start with maybe the 18-year-old Harriman-Annous. Plus, the talented Mr Mosquera and The Zube will be able to get a look in. Anyway, we shall see.
I banged on Statto HQ’s Port Cullis, and they didn’t answer. Instead, from an arrowslit on the floor above down floated a parchment with the yards and perches inscribed upon it; Fleetwood Town FC have a 4.1% chance of winning and Arsenal FC, 87.1%.
Next up, it’s northward Ho! again for our next PL game, and part two of the Mersey sandwich, a late Sunday afternoon(got no mind to worry?) clash with Liverpool at Anfield. Till then, may your horses be lucky. COYG!
Mills
