Fletcher Arrows Back

YELLOWS have turned to a popular and prolific former striker to shoot them to Pitching In Southern League Premier Division South safety.

Alex Fletcher has re-joined Tivvy, on an initial month's loan from Weston-super-Mare, for a third spell at the Ian Moorcroft Stadium.

Manager Leigh Robinson will be looking to the 24-year-old from Newton Abbot to add some firepower to the Town attack as they seek to avoid a relegation fight in the latter stages of the season.

A Plymouth Argyle Academy graduate, Alex first joined Tiverton on loan from the Pilgrims in December 2019. He made quite an impact, scoring eight goals in 11 starts, including netting in four games in a row towards the end of his temporary stay.

When the football season was curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Fletch returned to Home Park and was subsequently released at the end of the campaign.

He returned to Ladysmead for a second spell in which he was even more prolific than the first, scoring nine times in 10 league and cup matches.

That feat earned him a move to National League South Bath City, for whom he scored 23 times in 56 appearances before near tragedy struck in a home match against Dulwich Hamlet.

Chasing a lost cause in the fifth minute of the game, Fletch careened into a concrete advertising display on the perimeter of the Twerton Park pitch, damaging his skull. He was admitted into intensive care, where he remained for nearly two weeks – half of that time in an induced coma – and underwent emergency neurosurgery.

Miraculously, he has made a full recovery from that ordeal and is unsurprisingly now an advocate for player safety.

After visiting Ladysmead with Bath last summer for a pre-season friendly, when the club honoured him, and having returned to the pitch in August, he made the decision to leave the Romans last November.

He joined the Professional Footballers' Association as part of their health education team specialising in brain health and signed for Weston.

He has played ten times for the Seagulls, showing that he has not lost the scoring touch, netting on his debut.

Yellows supporters will be hoping he brings that touch to the Ian Moorcroft Stadium for a third time.