Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fleetwood Town heard it as anything else.
Dillon Phillips and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Elliot Bonds falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsLewis McCann beats them one at a time
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Hewitson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fleetwood Town the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Walsall keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Dillon Phillips was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Rhys Bennett has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
SquadÓscar Zambrano falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barrow AFC waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fleetwood Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fleetwood Town asked and Bromley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shaun Rooney and Fleetwood Town agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Bonds is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Paul Smyth and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar Zambrano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Charles Robinson could afford to be generous.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michael Golding signs something — a contract at Fleetwood Town or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fleetwood Town is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Paul Smyth and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Fleetwood Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elliot Bonds is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Accrington Stanley next, and one man in the Fleetwood Town dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fleetwood Town can pretend not to have heard.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Paul Smyth. 1‑0 against Chesterfield, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fleetwood Town people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fleetwood Town, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fleetwood Town they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The phone has started ringing about Stephen McMullan again, and this time the name on the line is ND Gorica. Fleetwood Town are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paul Smyth was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paul Smyth was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rhys Bennett was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Fleetwood Town are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Charles Robinson after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Tyler Walton
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Grimsby Town.