County conquered – Stockport County (A)

So it was off to another new ground – Edgeley Park – yesterday to see Fleetwood Town take on Stockport County in the Blue Square Bet Premier, and what a magnificent game it turned out to be.

Pre match statistics suggested that the most likely outcome of the game would have been a 1-1 draw, with Stockport having amassed eight from their prior eleven games, but with Town having fired home 16 goals in their previous five matches, they were hoping not to be the latest team to be caught up in that particular record.

Micky Mellon made just the one change to the starting line up from the side that started against AFC Telford United on Saturday. Scott Brown replacing Gareth Seddon, who was unable to feature due to a rather unusual injury. A broken finger & a dislocated knuckle picked up in a freak accident 10 minutes into Saturday’s game, left the striker with his left hand in a plaster cast.

Nathan Pond made a welcome return to the bench replacing Richard Brodie, who was serving a one match ban for picking up five yellow cards. Jamie Vardy & Jamie McGuire were serving the second game of a three match ban.

Pre match handshakes at Edgeley Park

As with the match at Kettering, Fleetwood made a blistering start. Jamie Milligan playing a one-two with Andy Mangan on the edge of the Stockport area, before the ball found it’s way to Magno Vieira. His little dink over an onrushing Matt Glennon inside the first 90 seconds to set the tone for an astonishing match. It was Vieira’s 5th goal of the season, a scoring run that had only started 10 days earlier at Ebbsfleet United.

From that point onwards, Town were in the ascendency. Scott Brown flashing a couple of drives over the angle of bar and post from distance, but after 25 minutes disaster struck for Fleetwood. Vieira pulled up chasing a through ball, and signalled immediately to the bench that he had pulled his hamstring. An injury later confirmed by the player on Twitter, with the lay off period likely to be around 3-4 weeks.

Vieira’s withdrawl had an unsettling effect of the side, with his replacement Stefan Cox unable to exert any influence on the first half. Moments later, Stockport had found their equaliser. Danny Rowe (not Fleetwood’s Danny Rowe, who is on a six month loan deal at Droylsden) easily beat Shaun Beeley, Scott Brown and Jamie Milligan in the right back position. His square ball found Antonio German whose turn and shot from 10 yards found the bottom corner of Scott Davies net. And from that point onwards, wave after wave of Stockport pressure bore down on the Fleetwood goal.

Nick Chadwick, Michael Paton and Jon Nolan all had good opportunities to give County a half time lead, but their shooting was a little wayward.

Town have, this season, been a revelation in the second half of games. 15 of their 23 goals had come after the interval, so it was little surprise that they continued their amazing knack of scoring.

One again, Town were quick to extend their lead. Andy Mangan, a thorn in Danny O’Donnell’s side all evening, managed to keep the ball in on the touchline. With a perfect lay off, Sean Clancy was able to fire the ball low past Matt Glennon to make it 2-1 to Town. It was Clancy’s first goal of the season.

Then Stefan Cox joined in the goalscoring fun, with his first for the club. The ex Tooting & Mitcham player smashing the ball in to the roof of the net from about 5 yards out, following good work by Mangan and Scott Brown. The elation of the 213 travelling members of the Cod Army was there for all to see as the scoreboard read Stockport County 1-3 Fleetwood Town at that point

It would have been easy for Town to sit back and invite County to exert pressure, and that’s exactly what they did. With Town 3-1 up and seemingly cruising to victory, German popped up with another emphatic turn and finish from the edge of the area John Miles through ball.

German, a threat every time he got forward, inexplicably managed to miss two of the easiest opportunities to seal his hat-trick. The first coming from a poor back pass by Rob Atkinson. The County striker pounced on his mistake, and raced to the edge of the penalty area. He beat Scott Davies to the ball, but somehow managed to place his chip wide of the right hand upright with an open goal at his mercy.

And his best miss was yet to come. A mix up between Junior Brown and Rob Atkinson on the edge of the six yard box was pounced on by Nick Chadwick. His shot was well saved, but the ball rebounded to German. From all of three yards, he somehow managed to sky his shot high over the unguarded Fleetwood goal and into row Z.

Mangan had the opportunity to make it 4-1, but his shot from the edge of the area skimmed the outside of Glennon’s post on its way out for a goal kick, before high drama ensued in stoppage time.

With four minutes having been signalled by the fourth official, Antonio German was the architect of County’s best opportunity. This time popping up on the right hand side of the penalty area, his shot looked for all the world to be creeping into the top left hand corner of the Fleetwood net. With Scott Davies appearing to have been beaten, and a 3-3 scoreline looming, the Fleetwood goalkeeper managed, somehow to get the mearest of fingertip touches onto the ball to send it out for a corner kick. It was a world class save, one which would be applauded by the pundits had it occurred in the Premier League.

Matt Glennon went up for the resulting corner, and on the break Andy Mangan scored a thoroughly deserved goal to seal all three points. Nathan Pond made a welcome return from his ankle injury in the last 30 seconds of the match.

Micky Mellon will rightly be delighted with the win, but a trip to 2nd placed Braintree on Saturday will not be the walk over some people may expect. The Essex side have yet to drop points at the Amlin Stadium this season.

Stockport County: Glennon, Holden, O’Donnell, Piergianni, Blackburn (Sheridan), McCann, Paton (Whitehead), Nolan, Rowe (Miles), Chadwick (C), German

Unused subs: Brahim-Bounab, Ormison (GK)

Goals: German (29,71)

Fleetwood: Davies (GK), Beeley, McNulty, Atkinson, J Brown, S  Brown, Milligan, Briggs, Clancy, Mangan, Vieira (Cox) (Pond)

Unused subs: Goodall, Hughes, St Louis-Hamilton (GK)

Goals: Vieira (2), Clancy (49), Cox (56), Mangan (90+4)

Referee – Mr R Joyce; Assistants – Mr G Chapman, Mr M Parker; 4th Official – Mr J Waters

 Entertainment value: 5*

Micky Mellon speaking with David Mitchell from Fleetwood Town’s press team:

Kiddy Killers – Kidderminster Harriers (H)

Last night’s match between Fleetwood and Kidderminster was always going to be a keenly fought contest between two side that battled it out for the final play off place in the Blue Square Bet Premier table last season. But if at the beginning of the night, you’d have said to me that we’d see 7 goals, 2 red cards, a penalty and a couple of rounds of boxing, I’d have been asking what you’d been drinking before the match!

Once again, Micky Mellon had been forced into making changes to his starting line up. This time centre half Paul Linwood missed out through a recurrence of an injury picked up in pre season, so Steve McNulty was restored to the side but was not in his usual role of Captain. That honour was bestowed on Jamie McGuire for the fourth game in a row. Otherwise, the side was unchanged from the team that started at Ebbsfleet on Saturday.

Incidentally, Fleetwood hadn’t lost when McGuire captained the side this season, and that was a run that was set to continue.

Seconds out...round one

The tone for the evening was set just 10 seconds after kick off, when Gareth Seddon picked up the quickest yellow card of the season. His rash tackle on Lee Vaughan saw referee Mr Harrington produce the first of three yellow cards for Fleetwood players.

But the main talking point of the first half involved Jamie Vardy, a late challenge on Lee Vaughan and an almighty brawl that would have been better suited to a boxing ring than a football pitch.

Yes, there’s no denying that Vardy had to see red for his tackle, which was high, wild and late, but whatever was going through veteran striker Steve Guinan‘s mind  is something only he will know. As is the now the norm following a late tackle, all 22 players converged on the Parkside Stand touchline, and in the ensuing melee, the Kidderminster man decided that Jamie McGuire was the deserved target of a fierce left hook. It was a punch which Manny Pacquiao would have been proud. And with that punch, cue all hell breaking loose in the technical area too. Both benches were up and in each others faces. Watching from my lofty position in the press box actually made me feel sorry for the fourth official, Matthew Pope, who had the unenviable task of calming everyone down and restoring order.

Kidderminster seemed to cope the better of the two side in the moments after the melee. Marc Williams hitting the legs of Scott Davies, following a woefully short back pass from Junior Brown,  when he really should have done better.

And then Town stole the advantage just seconds before half time. McGuire was able to get the byeline on the far right hand side, his cut back was played in to the path of Gareth Seddon, and the striker lashed the ball into the back of the net from 15 yards.

Then in a breathless second half, Magno Vieira picked up a second brace in two games. His first coming courtesy on a wonderfully weighted ball over the heart of the Harriers defence, which allowed the Brazilian to outpace his rivals before picking his spot in the bottom corner to make it 2-0 after 46 minutes.

Andy Mangan made it 3-0 after 56 minutes. An attempted one-two with Seddon was partially cleared, but the ball fell to Mangan who drove a left footed shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Vieira’s second of the night came through unselfish play by Richard Brodie. Former Kiddy captain Keith Briggs‘ shot from 20 yards was parried by Lewis, but the ball fell to Brodie, who chose to square the ball across the six yard box to Vieira, rather than to have a shot. Vieira made no mistake from 3 yards for a 4-0 scoreline.

Finally, after a wait of 9 games, Richard Brodie got his name on the Fleetwood score sheet. His free kick from the edge of the area was driven through the wall, past the helpless Lewis and into the bottom corner to make it 5-1.

Lee Vaughan slotted home a 67th minute penalty and Jamille Matt tapped in late on to pull two goals back for the visitors, before all hell broke loose once more at the final whistle.

The scoreline represented Town’s biggest winning margin since the 6-0 win at Eastbourne last season, and moved them up to fourth in the Blue Square Bet Premier table having taken 20 points from the first ten games. Town now sit behind Luton, Wrexham and Gateshead on goal difference.

Fleetwood: Davies (GK), Beeley, Atkinson, McNulty, J Brown (Goodall), Vardy, Milligan (Briggs), McGuire (C), Mangan, Seddon (Brodie), Vieira

Unused Subs: Clancy, St Louis-Hamilton (GK)

Bookings: Seddon, Mangan, Davies. Sent Off: Vardy – Violent Conduct

Goals: Seddon (45+3); Vieira (46, 65); Mangan (56); Brodie (76)

Kidderminster Harriers: Lewis (GK), Vaughan, Michael Williams, Jones, Phelan, Marshall, Hankin (Wright), Vincent (Byrne), Guinan, Marc Williams (Matt), Storer

Unused Subs: Sharpe, Lyness

Sent Off: Guinan – Violent Conduct

Goals: Vaughan (pen 67); Matt 90+2

Attendance: 1316

Entertainment Value: 5*

My full time report on The Bay can be found here: Kidderminster full time report

Back to winning ways – Gateshead (H)

So it was back to Highbury Stadium this afternoon, and a tough test against 2nd in the Blue Square Bet Premier table Gateshead.

Indications in the hours before the game were that Shaun Beeley and Andy Mangan would make a return to the Town team this afternoon, and we weren’t to be disappointed with their performances.

Micky Mellon made just one change from the side that beat Kettering 3-2 on Non League Day last Saturday, with Shaun Beeley replacing Danny Holmes at right back.

So Town lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Scott Davies in goal, a back four of Shaun Beeley, Rob Atkinson, Paul Linwood & Paul Edwards, Midfield saw Stefan Cox, Jamie Milligan, Jamie McGuire and Jamie Vardy continue to gel into an organised unit, whilst Gareth Seddon and Magno Vieira carried on in their front pairing.

The Fleetwood bench was the strongest it had been for a while: Richard Brodie, Alan Goodall, Andy Mangan, Keith Briggs & Danzelle St Louis-Hamilton the incumbents.

After a blistering start last week at Kettering, it was little surprise to see the Cod Army start in the same vein. Stefan Cox stealing the ball off Eddie Odhiambo on the half way line, before fizzing an inviting ball across the 6 yard box which just evaded Gareth Seddon.

The rest of the 1st half is something a blur – much like my match notes, which were ruined during a sharp down pour.
Yes, there may be a swanky new stand, and a swanky new press box, but if it rains sideways (as it has a tendency to do in Lancashire) then you’re not safe from the elements, even sat 11 rows back!

But the turning point in the match was be the 1st half introduction of Andy Mangan. His first act was to pick up a booking for a slightly late challenge on James Curtis.

His goal was worth the wait, he picked the ball up over on the left flank, and headed towards the centre of the pitch. From fully 35 yards, and with no one around him, he struck the most fierce shot, and like a missile, the ball flew into the centre of the goal via the underside of the Gateshead crossbar.

It was a goal worthy of winning any match, let alone spark a goal scoring spree, which saw Jamie Vardy score his 4th goal in 3 games.

The best opportunity for The Heed fell to Yemi Odubade, but his shot from 6 yards skimmed past the far post & went out for a goal kick.

And then it became the Jamie Vardy show. His first goal was similar in construction to Mangan’s opener.
Magno Vieira flicked the ball out to Vardy, who raced into the penalty area, and from the narrowest of angles drilled the ball past a stranded Paul Farman.
And his 2nd goal came deep into injury time. Richard Brodie, on for Gareth Seddon, fed a perfectly weighted ball through the heart of the Gateshead defence for the former FC Halifax Town striker to slot past the on rushing Farman to well and truly seal the points for the Cod Army.

Yemi Odubade curled a great 25 yard free kick into the top corner of Scott Davies net, just on the stroke of 90 minutes, to create what would have been a nervy final few minutes, had Fleetwood’s record signing not intervened.

Fleetwood Town: Davies (GK), Beeley, Atkinson, Linwood, Edwards, Cox (Mangan), Milligan (Briggs), McGuire (C), Vardy, Seddon (Brodie), Vieira
Subs not used: Goodall, St Louis-Hamilton (GK)

Bookings: Mangan
Goals: Mangan 51, Vardy 80, 90+4

Gateshead: Farman (GK), Odhiambo, Rents, Gate, Curtis, Clark (C), Turnbull, Odubade, Cummins (Fisher), Mulligan, Moore (Gillies)
Subs not used: Baxter, Carruthers, Alnwick (GK)

Bookings: Odihambo
Goal: Odubade 90

Referee: Mr W Barrett (Worcestershire)

Entertainment value: 3*

Andy Mangan celebrates the opening goal (pic from http://www.fleetwoodtownfc.com)