Fleetwood academy director proud of 'purple patch' as club soars up rankings

The set-up at Poolfoot Farm came in for praise this week as the latest ‘Academy Productivity Rankings’ were published.

Compiled by the Training Ground Guru company, the rankings are based on the number of England-eligible players who have come through to represent their club in the league.

Since the previous rankings were published five seasons ago, Fleetwood have climbed 25 places to 65th.

That climb would be even greater were Town able to include Northern Irish as well as English players.

And the Fleetwood academy has been in existence for only six-and-a-half years, giving clubs with longer academy histories a real advantage in the rankings.

Higgins, who arrived from Burnley 18 months ago, feels Fleetwood are in a “purple patch” of producing talent for the first team.

He told The Gazette: “It’s what we’re all here for – to get players through the system, into the first team and playing first-team football.

“It’s a real purple patch for us that all these players we have worked with for numerous years are getting the opportunity to showcase themselves on the main stage.

“On Tuesday night (against Bolton Wanderers), we had 10 players(from the academy) in the squad 18, seven appeared on the pitch and we came away with a 3-0 win.

“It was a really impressive performance all the way through. We’re really pleased with the way we’re going.”

Other academies may be bigger and have greater resources or longer history, but the Cod Army have a poster boy in James Hill, selected for England Under-21s this season, and this summer saw England Under-16 captain Josh Feeney move on to Aston Villa.

Higgins said: “We are a category three club at the minute. We don’t have the rich resources other clubs do in the Football League, so we do have to work differently.

“We pride ourselves at this football club on working differently to be better than others.

“The chairman (Andy Pilley) has been very keen on investing in the academy and has been very clear to us what he wants, which is to produce players capable of playing in the first team.

“We are working with a self-awareness of where we are and who we are.

“The results that have come out from Training Ground Guru show that we are the highest-rising academy in terms of productivity. We’ve gone up 25 places.

“And the list is based on historic results. We’re still very young, so to be placed so highly is an incredible achievement for everybody.”

Fleetwood have a change of opponent for Saturday, January 8.

Instead of facing Plymouth Argyle, who are in FA Cup third-round action that weekend, Town will visit Doncaster Rovers in a match brought forward from February 1.

It’s the second change of date for the Doncaster match, postponed last month because of international call-ups. A new date for the Plymouth game will be announced in due course.

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