Postance Strikes Late to Snatch a Point at Tadley!

Fleet Town made the trip across North Hampshire to Tadley Calleva on Saturday afternoon, hoping to catch them on a day with their minds more on their FA Cup journey, still celebrating last weekend’s win and looking forward to the next round next weekend.

After an even opening quarter, with both sides restricted to half chances, the game burst into life just beyond the twenty-minute mark. We won a free-kick in a dangerous area, and from Seanan McKillop’s delivery Theo White found space at the far post to tuck the ball home and give us the lead after twenty-three minutes.

The advantage was short-lived. Within ninety seconds, former Fleet man Jack French lifted a ball over our backline for Sheldon Wright to latch onto. Cutting inside, he calmly finished to level the contest. Both sides continued to press for a second goal, with Tadley’s defence – marshalled by another ex-Fleet player, Brad Passfield – standing firm.

We fell behind just before the break when Brad Neal launched a quick counter, releasing Oliver Rowan, who slipped the ball through for Wright to score his second on forty-one minutes. We went into the interval trailing 2–1.

The home side pushed on after the restart and looked the likelier to extend their advantage, but a mix of strong defending and wasted chances kept us in the game. We freshened things up with new signings Ryan Griffiths (61 mins) and Rodney Dos Santos (79 mins) making their debuts, as the tempo remained high.

Tadley should have sealed the points in the 90th minute when Rowan’s cross evaded Ash Neal but reached Dan Williamson, whose effort thundered against the bar. That miss proved costly. In stoppage time, we broke forward and were awarded a penalty after a foul in the box. Up stepped Charlie Postance, who smashed home the spot-kick deep into added time to snatch a dramatic equaliser.

The game ended 2–2, a valuable point salvaged at the death. With several other top sides winning, we slipped to seventh in the table – but remain only two points adrift of new leaders Redhill. The late fightback underlined our resilience, and with confidence building, we’ll look to push on in the weeks ahead.

Fleet Town

1 Sam Gray

2 Tom Drinkwater

4 Seanan McKillop

6 Liam Avery

7 Sam Bartlett

8 Sean Swift

9 Charlie Postance

10 Theo White

12 Brad Manning

20 TJ Taylor

Subs

15 Rodney Dos Santos (on for Manning)

16 Hadif Darwysh (on for White)

17 Ryan Griffiths (on for Swift)

18 Joe Dyett

19 Ollie Burke (on for Taylor)