What better day to announce the news that Michael West, the club’s current leading appearances holder, has extended his third spell with the Fleet than today, exactly 75 years on from our foundation as a limited company.
With almost 170 games completed for the Fleet, West is eyeing the 200-mark and is just four goals short of joining the ’40 Club’ in the goalscorers’ charts.
He made his senior debut aged 16 back in 2007 in the Kent Senior Cup, playing alongside the likes of Mark Ricketts, Sacha Opinel and John Akinde in that game and he broke into the first team on a more regular basis during 2009/10.
He scored his first goal for the club in August 2010 at Farnborough, the venue where he would end that season 45 league games and 24 goals later with a virtuoso display that helped take the Fleet to promotion.
Another exciting season back in the National League brought West a richly deserved move into the Football League with Crewe Alexandra in 2012 and as well as his second spell at Stonebridge Road, he has also played for Hereford United, Whitehawk, Chelmsford City and Eastbourne Borough.
It was Eastbourne from where he arrived to begin his third spell with the Fleet last summer, adding to his goals tally with an equaliser at Hampton with his first touch of the game, and the popular 30-year-old now enters what will be his 10th season in total on the club’s books.
