Fleet Town FA Cup Run Comes To An End

Fleet Town 2 AFC Stoneham 4
Emirates FA Cup First Qualifying Round.

Fleet Town suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of Wessex League Premier side AFC Stoneham, to exit this season’s FA Cup competition. Fleet Town had been one of only two sides from their Combined Counties Premier South Division to have made it through to this round, the other one was Redhill who also lost on Saturday.

A bright start from Fleet Town saw them take an early lead as they attacked up the right, Chike Kandi collected the ball in midfield and passed up to Mal Thomas on the right, Mal crossed the ball into the middle and only cleared as far as Matt Surmon, his shot was only blocked by Stoneham keeper Callum Lee and the loose ball fell to Dean Rule to fire into the net and put Fleet into the lead after just 78 seconds. Shortly after Fleet were looking to add to their advantage when another cross from Mal Thomas found the head of Dean Rule, but Callum Lee was able to make the save. From their first attack Jaime Johnston brought the ball down the left towards the box and squared the ball to Alex Welch to strike the ball home and bring Stoneham level after Seven minutes. Before the game restarted, Stoneham player Ben Clarke who had gone down on halfway, received treatment but unable to continue was brough off and replaced by Jake Thomson. After Twenty minutes the Referee awarded Stoneham a Penalty, which was successfully put away by Jaime Johnston to put the visitors ahead.  Fleet created several openings without the reward from their efforts, Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb drove up the right and played the ball into Chike Kandi, who played the ball back to Fareed, but he shot over the bar. Chike Kandi soon had a chance of his own but fired his shot wide.  Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb brought the ball up the right to the corner before cutting in he drove into the box, beating two defenders challenges, he kept the ball and got a shot away which was saved by Callum Lee. The game reached half time with Stoneham still holding their narrow advantage and all to play for in the second half.

Fleet had the first good chance of the second half, Mal Thomas pass to Tane Caubo, Stoneham keeper Callum lee could only get a hand to Tane’s fierce shot, which was just enough to deflect the ball against the post and it bounced back into play and cleared away to safety and by such narrow margins often steer the course of a close game. The escape encouraged Stoneham and they started to control more of the match. After 56 minutes, Tom Annetts for Stoneham crossed the ball into the box and it drifted against the crossbar, as it dropped down Tom Theobald was able to knock the ball away but it fell to Alex Welch to tap in from close range and increase Stoneham’s lead. Even though Stoneham had more of the ball they were kept at bay and not getting many clear chances. Then after 83 minutes, Stoneham sub Ashley Pope ran through from the left into the box to hot the ball across goal and into the far side of net for the visitors best goal of the game and put them 4-1 ahead with time running out. Another of Stoneham’s subs Jaime Truckell  got a shot in which Tom Theobald saved and quickly send the ball downfoeld for Fleet to build another attack. Late hope came for Fleet when Sub, Mihail Marinescu brought the ball in from the right and fired his shot into the roof of the net after 89 minutes, to make the score 2-4. There was plenty of added time for Fleet to look for another goal and make the final moments more interesting but it did not fall for them on the day and the game ended in disappointment for all the home fans.

Fleet Town 1 Tom Theobald, 2 Nick Medcraft, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Arjend Ahmetaj, 14 Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb, 19 Chike Kandi, 8 Matt Surmon, 9 Tane Caubo, 10 dean Rule, 11 Mal Thomas.
Subs 12 Josh Pound, 13 Callum Backhurst, 17 Mihail Marinescu (on for Caubo 72 mins), 18 Dan Bone (on for  Hakeem-Habeeb 56 mins)