The Fleetwood pooch may have retired from the track, but the roar of the crowd and the glare of the lights were just too much to resist.

She raced into the Fleetwood Town soccer ground near her home on Peel Road and did four laps of the arena while professional footballers from Blackpool and Burnley reserves could only stand and stare in admiration.

"The match had to stop, but she got a big round of applause afterwards" said her owner Jane Holland.

Moments earlier Jane had been walking Fools Mile - pet name Fi - in Fleetwood Memorial Park which is next to the football ground.
Fi, aged five, is a discarded racer who was rescued from a Cumbrian kennels two weeks ago.

In her glory days Fools Mile won one of 11 races in Ireland before being retired.

She was supposed to be learning to take it easy, but at the sounds from the stadium all her old instincts came to the fore and she made a dash for the limelight.

Jane said: "The stadium gates were open and she heard people shouting. She just ran through the gates and on to the pitch and ran and ran.
"I think she was looking for the hare to chase. The players stood and watched her and then they clapped her.

"I couldn't chase after her, there's no way you could catch her. We just had to wait until she had finished.

"When she had had enough she came back and looked at me as if to say she couldn't find a way off the pitch."
Among the crowd on Wednesday night was Fleetwood Town chairman Andy Pilley.

He said: "It was absolutely hilarious and people didn't realise what was happening at first.

"Afterwards everyone was talking about it.
"It had clearly run on a track before and everyone found it very funny and gave the dog a round of applause."

Fi can now settle down to life with Jane, her husband Mathew, their three children and another rescue dog, Amber a lurcher-pharoah hound cross.

The owner said: "I adopted her because greyhounds are just abandoned. If they stop running and don't make any money, people just leave them: it's terrible."

But Jane says the next time Fi is near a football match she will definitely be on the lead!