Fleetwood Town Res.

1908–1997: early years and struggles

The current club was officially established in 1997 but football in Fleetwood dates back to 1883.

The original club, Fleetwood Rangers, played in the Lancashire Football League in the 1890s. After its demise, a new club, Fleetwood Amateur, was formed, and it dropped the Amateur aspect in 1908; its greatest honour was winning the Lancashire Combination in 1923–24. This club resigned from the Lancashire Combination in February 1928 because of financial difficulties.

In the 1928–29 season Fleetwood Windsor Villa F.C. were members of the Fylde and District Football League. At the end of that season they were elected to the West Lancashire Football League and were members for two seasons. They were then elected to the Lancashire Combination for season 1931–32, changing their name to Fleetwood F.C. They registered a hat-trick of Lancashire Combination Cup wins in 1932, 1933 and 1934. The side's goalkeeper in the first of those victories was Frank Swift, then only eighteen years old. After almost sixty years as a Lancashire Combination club, they became founder members of the newly created Northern Premier League in 1968. Great players of that era include Jack Ainscough and the late Percy Ronson, after whom one stand is named. The club finished in 10th place in its first season. As the NPL was one of several leagues immediately below Division Four of the Football League, this was effectively the fifth tier of English football, and the club would not surpass this success until 2010–11. Despite winning the Northern Premier League Cup in 1971, the club languished in the lower half of the table, finishing bottom for two successive seasons (1974–75 and 1975–76) before folding in 1976, again due to financial difficulties.

The club was re-established in 1977 as Fleetwood Town F.C., with many of the original personnel. Initially placed in Division One of the Cheshire League, it was moved in 1982 to the North West Counties League Division Two in its inaugural year, and promoted to Division One in 1984. The team reached the final of the FA Vase in 1985, losing 3–1 to Halesowen Town in front of a 16,000 crowd at Wembley. The club was placed in Division One (second tier) of the Northern Premier League when the league established a second tier in 1987, becoming the inaugural Division One Champions in 1988. In 1990–91 the club finished fourth in the NPL Premier Division, at the time effectively the sixth tier. However, by 1996, this third club had also folded due to financial issues.

1997–2011: reform and promotions

Re-formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers F.C., the club was placed back in Division One of the North West Counties Football League (now the tenth tier of the English League system) and a sponsorship deal saw the club's name immediately changed to Fleetwood Freeport. The club was promoted to the Premier Division of the North West Counties League in 1999 and the name was reverted to Fleetwood Town in 2002. Tony Greenwood was appointed manager in 2003; soon afterwards, Andy Pilley took over as chairman. With his financial input, the club gained successive promotions as North West Counties League champions in 2005 and Northern Premier League First Division runners-up in 2006. This saw the club reach the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

Fleetwood Town won the Northern Premier League Challenge Cup in the 2006–07 season, beating Matlock Town 1–0, and finished the season just shy of the play-offs in eighth place with 67 points.

In the 2007–08 season Fleetwood won the Northern Premier League, gaining promotion to the Conference North. Along the way they set a new attendance record for the division, and were easily the best-supported team in the Premier Division.

Fleetwood started the 2008–09 Conference North season poorly; with the club at the bottom of the league, manager Tony Greenwood, along with his assistant Nigel Greenwood and coach Andy Whittaker, were sacked. Greenwood was replaced by Micky Mellon, who also remained as Under-15 and Under-16 coach at Burnley. His position at Fleetwood was made full-time in January 2009, a first for the club. Fleetwood reached the Second Round Proper of the F.A. Cup for the first time in their history, but were beaten 3–2 by Hartlepool United at Highbury, in front of a then record crowd since the club's reformation of 3,280.