Gareth Seddon stunned by sensational rise of Fleetwood Town team-mate Jamie Vardy

Gareth Seddon sees Jamie Vardy score yet again to propel Fleetwood into the Football League

The pair joined forces in attack when Town won promotion to the Football League in 2011/12.

Since leaving the Cod Army that summer for £1m, the 33-year-old Vardy has scored 128 goals in eight seasons for Leicester City, helping them to a historic Premier League title in 2016, and has scored seven times for England.

Speaking to the Gazette about his own hugely successful three seasons at Highbury, Seddon said: “In my first season, 2009-10, I scored 20-odd goals and we went up to the Conference Premier.

“In the second season we reached the play-offs and I scored in the semi-finals (though Wimbledon won 8-1 on aggregate), then in the third season we brought in a lad called Vardy.

“I was 31 that season. I was still really fit but the chairman saw we needed more of a goal threat and Vardy was phenomenal.

“No, I’d never heard of him and when he first ran on I thought, ‘Who is this guy?”

“He was about 10 stone and there was nothing to him, but he kind of glided across the pitch.

“You could see his speed and tenacity, but did I ever think he’d go on to have the career he has? No way.

“I thought he’d play higher. Blackpool were interested after we’d played them in the FA Cup and I thought that could be a good move.

“But nobody thought he would reach the heights he has.

“When he went to Leicester, I thought he might get into their Championship team and do all right, but to score all the goals he did, break records in the Premier League and play for England was unbelievable.

“And it’s great testament to him that he’s managed to carry on playing at the level he has for so long now.”

Seddon was the foil enabling Vardy and Andy Mangan to use their pace in a Town front three.

Vardy scored 25 league goals and Mangan 17 as the Cod Army won what is now the National League title, Seddon notching seven times.

“Jamie and I did play as a two up front but we had four or five good strikers that season and Micky (Mellon, manager) changed it around quite a lot,” Seddon explained.

“Usually we played as a three, with me playing down the middle and taking all the knocks. We’d have Vardy on one side and Andy Mangan on the other.

“They were our two flyers. I’d do the hustle and bustle up the middle.”