Fleetwood enjoyed an absolutely unforgettable season in their first campaign in the top flight of non-league football and came within a few games of actually making it into the Football League. Backed by an ambitious owner, manager Micky Mellon looked to build on the promotion from the Blue Square North in the previous season and the calibre of players in the squad guaranteed that Fleetwood will play a serious part in the league. They had a pretty good start of the season with some thumping wins over Mansfield and Kettering sending an ominous message early on. The upturn in fortunes only intensified with Magno Vieira scoring goals for fun up front and Anthony Barry anchoring the midfield. The Cod Army even reached the top spot in the table for a few games and overall have been very tough to beat, losing just three games for the rest of the calendar year. They were drawing too many games as the season went on though, at times finding it hard to break defensive-minded teams at home. Still, Mellon's men were established in the play-off by the turn of the year which was some achievement for a team that was just coming up. The wobbles started to show in January and February when Fleetwood lost a number of games but still delivered the odd superb display, like winning 3:1 at Luton. However, eight defeats in the space of just two months ate up all the advantage they had in the play-off race and suddenly the odds were stacked against them with Kidderminster taking advantage. However, the players showed tremendous character to pick themselves up and end the season with seven wins from their last eight games, thus eclipsing the Harriers for the final play-off spot. The dream of a second successive promotion ended in tatters though as Wimbledon ran riot in the semi-final, winning 8:1 on aggregate and thus delivering an unfortunate final chapter on what has otherwise been a superb season all round. Fleetwood are there to stay though and will definitely be challenging for the top spot next season with Mellon expected to keep the nucleus of the squad who already have a year of experience at this level as an added bonus.
