NEWS FROM FLEET TOWN FC -
April 2008
ECSTASY TURNS INTO AGONY AS LEAGUE SEASON ENDS.
Dear Supporter,
Legendary Liverpool FC manager, Bill Shankly is quoted as saying “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that”.
Shankly summed football up perfectly. It's about passion, pride and the desire for your team to be the best. Football has the ability to make your weekends great or lousy, it can bring joy and sorrow, make you laugh or cry irrespective of whether you follow Liverpool, Chelsea, Aldershot or Fleet Town. All football fans know how crazy and irrational it is, but that's football and that's why we are fans.
For all at Calthorpe Park April had been a good month for the team. We won six of the seven games we played to progress into three (possibly four) cup finals and secured the runners-up position in the BGB S&W Division League, our highest ever finish in non-league football. Confidence was high as our league season came to a climax on May 1 st when after a roller-coaster campaign that had lasted eight months, we took to the field to play our play-off semi-final against Uxbridge, a team who had finished in 5th position, ten points behind ourselves.
The stormy weather in the Fleet area had caused the match to be postponed twice during the week but the sun shone during Thursday and dried our pitch out sufficiently for us to get the game on. Oxford City , victors over Didcot Town in the other semi-final, awaited the winners with the enormous prize of promotion the incentive to win.
Over 200 Fleet fans, young and old, prepared to cheer the Blues every move, hoping to inspire them to victory over an Uxbridge side that we had already beaten twice in the league. With promotion on offer a tense game was expected and the pressure of the occasion was felt by players and Blues fans alike as the match got under way. The game though didn't live up to expectation and despite taking a 1-0 half time lead through a Ben Wright strike we couldn't build on the goal advantage and conceded two goals ourselves, the second being a last minute penalty, to lose the match 1-2.
The play-offs are the cruellest stage to lose at and all of us at the Club, players, management, and fans were heartbroken as our promotion push ended at the same point for the second successive year.
Going into the game April had been another good month. We won three out of our four league games to finish runners up in the division to Farnborough. Our playing record of P42 W26 D7 L9 had seen us amass 85 points, only four behind the champions and we were duly presented with the BGB Division 1 Runners-Up trophy, which now sits proudly in the boardroom. Our last game against Slough , a 1-0 victory, was watched by a crowd of over 300 and gave us an average for the season of 193, again a highest ever and when you consider we often have over 50 that travel away it's been a good year for fan numbers.
Away from the league we reached three cup finals, including wins at Farnborough (4-2) and Ryman Premier League team Ashford Town (3-2), and have the possibility of making it four, again the most we have ever reached in a season.
If you want to follow the team, the games where trophies are still to be won are:
- Tuesday 6 th v New Milton Town (A) Russell Cotes Cup Final
- Thursday 8 th v Tadley Caleva (H) Basingstoke Senior Cup S-F
- Saturday 10 th v Tadley Caleva (H) North Hants Senior Cup Final
The Aldershot Senior Cup Final against either Sandhurst Town or Badshot Lea has still to be arranged.
Away from the first team our reserves continued their fine end of season run and in gaining 13 points out of a possible 18 they managed to move off the bottom of the table albeit we still suffered relegation from the Suburban Premier division.
Two dates for your diary:
- The end of season Presentation Evening is on May 24th at the Clubhouse. We still have some spaces left if you wish to join us in a celebration of what has been a great season. Tickets available from Lyn Bevan at the club.
- Our monthly General Knowledge Quiz Night at the Club House is on 9th May with question-off at 8.00pm.
So in closing we thank you for all your support this season where despite achieving more ‘best evers' we just weren't able to deliver the ultimate prize of promotion. At Fleet Town though we are nothing if not positive and resilient and we remain confident that from our disappointment and setback will come determination and focus as we seek to build on this season and gain promotion in 2008-09.
Enjoy your summer.
Come on you Blues!
Mike Gardner,
Commercial Manager
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