Football Season Review

Fleetwood had a brilliant 2016/17 season, having missed out on direct promotion in the very final league round before failing to win promotion via the play-offs. Uwe Rosler was rightly hailed as a miracle worker and was expected to deliver another promotion push this season and the Cod Army looked rather good in the opening ten rounds or so. However, things started to turn sour in early October, as Fleetwood started to badly struggle, especially at home, and only had a brief renaissance in late December and early January, having won three our of the four games they played. They were unable to maintain that form and suffered a six-game losing streak in the second half of January and early February, with this run eventually costing Rosler his job. The Cod Army had the worst home record in the league when Rosler left and opted to replace him with John Sheridan, who has specialized in keeping sides up over the recent years and duly delivered. The damage done between October and February was always going to prove too large for Fleetwood to challenge for the play-offs, but they virtually secured their survival with a whole month of the season to spare and approached their last six games pretty much as friendlies and succumbed to four defeats in those matches. Despite the unquestionable improvement shown under Sheridan, the club opted against extending his contract and have made a risky move in naming Joey Barton, who has no previous managerial experience, their new boss. Given the reputation that Barton had as a player and his lack of experience, Fleetwood's decision to appoint him has raised a lot of eyebrows and it is up to the rookie manager to prove the doubters wrong next season.

Player of the Season: Ashley Eastham