Fleet Town 2-1 Alton Town

Match Report by Steve Cantle

Fleet continued their winning pre-season form on Tuesday night, brushing ahead a spirited Wessex League Alton side. But the home side had to work hard for the win, after a below par first half performance saw the visitors 1-0 up at the break.

But second-half goals from striker, Mark Frampton ­ his fifth in four outings so far ­ and a second from skipper, Craig Anstey ­ his first for his new club ­ were enough to secure the win for the Fleet side.

Mick Catlin¹s side now has one more friendly before the league season kicks off with a tough home match against Tonbridge Angels on Saturday week.

Catlin was critical of his side¹s first-half performance.

"Alton started the game strongly, as you¹d expect from a local team playing a higher league side. We didn¹t seem able to raise our game. After the break, our fitness began to tell. We started to create chances, and took them well," Catlin told the News.

With some of his squad unavailable, Catlin took the opportunity to give longer run-outs for several untested players. There was a space on the bench for 16 year-old, Youth Teamer, Steve Cole, who was making his first-team debut. Returning to the side was ex-Havant keeper, Steve May, who impressed for the whole 90 minutes and made several fine saves.

The visitors got the better of the early exchanges, going close on a number of occasions. Eventually Alton took the lead in the 24th minute when striker, Dave Bridger was given time to pick his spot, giving keeper May no chance in the Fleet goal.

After the interval the home side started strongly, and after 62 minutes, Frampton made no mistake with a powerful header, following good work down the left by Paul Dadson.

Fleet¹s winner came with 15 minutes remaining, after the referee penalised the Alton keeper for picking up a back-pass.

The resulting indirect free-kick from 10 years out was fired strongly at the goal by Anstey, the ball taking a slight deflection into the net off the chest of an Alton defender.

FLEET: May, Reagan, (sub Martin, 83 mins), Millerick, (Buckland, 80), Murphy, (Saunders, 80), Blakely, Hare, (Ryan, 80), Black, Anstey, Tiller, (Parker, 72), Frampton, Dadson, (Cole, 65). Subs not used: Clayton, I Saunders