Fleetwood Town

Two seasons after winning the Conference National, Fleetwood Town stood in the Football League Two play-off final at Wembley and beat Burton Albion, a result that sent a club most of England had never heard of into League One. That climb, from the fifth tier to the third in two jumps, is the reason the modern history matters more than the founding date attached to it.

That founding date is itself tangled. The current legal entity was formed in 1997 as Fleetwood Wanderers, taking its name Fleetwood Town only in 2002. Behind it sits a line of clubs that kept dying and starting again: a Fleetwood side from 1908 broke up in 1928, its successor Fleetwood Windsor Villa folded in 1976, and a second Fleetwood Town filled the gap from 1977 until 1997. The 2011–12 Conference title was the moment the newest version stopped repeating that pattern and pushed on instead.

Highbury Stadium holds 5,327, with 2,672 of those seated, a ground built for a town rather than for the crowds that turned up at Wembley for the Burton Albion final. It suits a nickname that comes straight from the local trade: The Fishermen, or The Cods, with supporters known as the Cod Army.

Fixtures against Blackpool carry the label Fylde Coast derby, sharpened by the short distance between the two grounds, while matches with Morecambe are known along the coast as the Seafood derby. Older rivalries, against Southport in particular, belong to the years before 1997 and rarely surface now.

5,327 is the number Highbury holds on an ordinary Saturday.