Fleetwood Town's Highbury

Not to be confused with the old Highbury of Arsenal, Fleetwood Town's ground has seen many promotions in recent years and has had to undergo a major make over in that time.

I had first encountered Fleetwood Town several years ago when I used to go and watch Lincoln United whenever City weren't playing. Back in 2007/8, they travelled to Ashby Avenue very late in the season and well on their way to promotion, their 3-0 win relegated Lincoln United but I was very impressed with their fans that night, they were loud, passionate and even took time to clap the Lincoln United players off of the pitch for their efforts.

Skip forward a few years and Fleetwood are again going for promotion but this time it will be to the Football League and the only thing that stands in their way from doing it on national TV are Lincoln City. Although it was near enough guaranteed that they would be promoted anyway, a win against the Imps would cement the title. During the week before hand the Fleetwood chairman hadn't made many friends, pretty much talking about the game as if Fleetwood had already beaten us.

Arriving at the ground is relatively simple, although Fleetwood is a bit of a shithole of a town. With it's near neighbour Blackpool being regarded as one of the best seaside resorts in the country, it's amazing that Fleetwood somehow manages to make Cleethorpes look like a paradise. Getting around the town and to the ground is quite easy, although don't leave getting there until near last minute last we did as we struggle to find a parking spot.

After negotiating the long queues outside of the away end, we were finally in but they had only given us half of the tiny terrace behind one of the goals, meaning that it was very cramped and because there was also a fence there, it mean that the view was slightly restricted, but otherwise you got a decent view of the action.

Going clockwise around the ground you would get to another tiny stand, this time a seated effort that takes up apart half of the pitch and it is the only stand that makes it obvious that this ground has come from the lower reaches of non-league quickly. Whether they can expand this stand due to the houses that are slightly behind it are a different matter, but until that stand is sorted the ground does still have a non-league feel towards it.

The stand opposite is a terrace where the majority of the non-glory supporting Fleetwood fans (i/e the ones who didn't just turn up for this one game) seemed to go. This is also the stand where the majority of the atmosphere came from, they were very loud, although it took until they scored to really get going.

Continuing clockwise you get to the newest stand at the ground, and to be fair it is probably the best stand that I have seen at a ground of a club that is traditionally non-league. A very modern, pitch length, seated stand with a dome style roof makes it easily the best stand at the ground, and normally this is shared with away fans, but because they were on the verge of winning the title they got special permission for this stand to only be used by Fleetwood fans.

The game progressed and the Imps ended up getting a point, meaning that Fleetwood didn't get promoted that night, but what was strange was that they had a screen in the corner and at half time they showed "highlights of the first half"....but didn't show either of our goals. It was quite strange.

In terms of atmosphere, Fleetwood were excellent and their fans are amongst the friendliest I have met. Even though we had just denied them promotion, me and the person I was with got into lengthy conversations with their fans and we had a laugh with them in the newsagents after the game. They were very complimentary about it, which is something that we don't normally get, so it was quite nice and bizarre at the same time.

I would love to go to Fleetwood, and given that I now live in Lancashire, I will try and go to Fleetwood on a more regular basis. It is an excellent away day.