Non-league / Gary Boswell / 20 March 2009 / 2 Comments

The Boz perambulates a Lancashire promenade to secure this week's non-league fancy... Best Bet: Back Fleetwood Town at [2.2] or greater to beat Harrogate Town.

I worked in the Lancashire town of Fleetwood for two years and came to know it as an old ghost fishing town - the Western Grimsby - where rumours ran rife of sea-faring tragedy and long since departed prosperity was always said to be on its way back sooner rather than later.

With the fishing all but gone, a fair fist is being made to replace it with football and under what in these days of extreme financial uncertainty seems to be melancholy prudence, the fortunes of Fleetwood Town are decidedly on the up. Last season's champion's of Unibond Premier, under a benefactor plopping rather than splashing the cash, began this season's life in Blue Square North less than auspiciously. Relegation candidates for the most part.

Wednesday night's 2-2 draw at fellow promotees Gateshead - themselves proudly atop of BSN - signified the completeness of change that Micky Mellon's tenure as the new Town manger has wrought. 5-0 at Stalybridge last weekend might have had some of the 'strange soil syndrome' of the Bower Fold - previously mentioned in this blog - about it but it was also no fluke. Fleetwood Town are on the march again.

The so called Cod Army, captained by a 15-year old besuited mascot with a fish's head to promote terror (and a personality to match! - twice this season ejected by stewards for untoward use of the gills!) are steadily climbing the ladder of the league. They are a good bet on Saturday at [2.2] to continue the form that has seen them lose just once in their last eight when they host a Harrogate side going the other way. Play-off contenders for most of the season, on a flattening out stretch of just three wins from the last ten and failure to win any of the last three. A midweek trek to Redditch to be told that floodlights had failed has done nothing to illuminate Harrogate's spirit and there is gloom all around the Yorkshire outfit who have flattered often enough before only to fade under the spotlight.

You get the sense things are different for Fleetwood and this weekend's odds don't reflect it. In Danny Hurst they have one of the league's talented young keepers whilst long-standing hard men Ricky Mercer and Nathan Pond (known as 'bite your legs' in a way that wouldn't have him favoured in the current football league climate!) are the fishermen's backbone. Goals are scored by Adam Warlow who is one of several serious Mellon finds.

I've had this bet as my banker in mind all week - sure that it is one of those where the price is determined by season long league position rather than current form (and thus wrong) - but had a bit of a wobble when I heard that Forest Green bad lad John Hardiker was on his way back to the club. Reported in the press on Monday but denied on Tuesday when it was confirmed that he was to play back at Stalybridge.

That kind of unsettling rumour always puts the Boz's planned gambles on a state of high alert and I'm well acquainted with how rumour plays an integral part in the life of Fleetwood Town.

When I first started going to the ground, I was told in all seriousness that several of the regulars were old Gooners who had sold up in North London when Arsenal moved to The Emirates. Estate agents were doing a roaring trade in the depressed Lancashire Town, famed for its adherence to the grotesque lozenge known as the Fisherman's Friend, by stating in the sales pitch that properties were in spitting distance of Highbury! So is Fleetwood's ground named and who is to deny the rumours in these days of disenfranchised old terrace fans adopting a resurrection in the shape of non- league football.

Fleetwood's fortunes are definitely on the up as their rising gates will testify.

Just one other bet this weekend and another wrong price in Blue Square Premier. Last weekend, Burton Albion were [1.44] at home to Salisbury [7.0] despite The Brewers coming in on the back of no wins from three whilst the Lilywhites were unbeaten in five. That kind of pricing up on season long rather than current form is rife at this time of year and looks to me to have been repeated on the Lilywhites again this weekend.

Following the Burton win, they extended to seven games unbeaten midweek and Nick Holmes has seriously redressed their mid-season lapse and got them back to the form that had them table toppers in September. [2.75] at home to beat a mediocre Rushden & Diamonds (with only three wins in their last twelve and one of those the infamous 9-0 v Weymouth) is as wrong a price as you are ever likely to see.