Stat Attack: Fleetwood Town vs. Notts County

Saturday marks only the second time that Notts have met Fleetwood Town in a league match. The first meeting was at the start of this season, in August - when the Fishermen beat the Magpies 1-0 at Meadow Lane.

And the first ever meeting between the two sides was around eighteen months ago when Notts beat Fleetwood 3-2, again at our place, in the League Cup. You might remember it as the game that preceded THAT epic clash against Liverpool at Anfield.

In its current guise, Fleetwood Town has only been around since 1997, but the club has had predecessors in the form of Fleetwood FC, formed in 1908, and the original Fleetwood Town FC created in 1977.

The original Fleetwood FC were champions of the Lancashire Combination in 1923–24, and registered a hat-trick of Lancashire Combination Cup wins in 1932, 1933 and 1934. Manchester City legend Frank Swift used to play for them at the time.

This incarnation of the club folded in 1976 due to financial difficulties, before being reborn as Fleetwood Town FC. After some moderate success in the non-league, including a final appearance at the FA Vase in 1985, this guise also folded, in 1996.

Re-formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers, 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 F.C.

The club was promoted to the Premier Division of the North West Counties League in 1999 and subsequently renamed Fleetwood Town F.C, a name that remains today.

Their meteoric rise to the third tier of English football began just ten years ago, as the Fishermen went from playing in the North West Counties League in 2004 to the Conference in 2010, before making it to the Football League in 2012 and eventually being promoted from League Two at the end of last season.

Just to give you an idea how quickly they have developed in the last decade – the average Fleetwood Town attendance ten years ago was 134. Now it’s over 20 times that amount at 2819.

The Fishermen currently hold the record for a non-league player sale, as Jamie Vardy left the then-Conference club for Leicester City, who paid £1m for his services (potentially rising to £1.7m).

---

Fleetwood Graham Alexander has an almost fully-fit squad ahead of Saturday's game at Highbury.

Striker Jamille Matt and full-back Danny Andrew are the Cod Army's only long-term absentees.

Meanwhile, Ronan Murray will miss out for the Magpies after sustaining an injury in training last week.

Aside from that, Notts have no other fresh injury or suspension worries and could be unchanged for the third game in a row.