Fleet Town Lose on Penalties

Fleet Town 4 Tadley Calleva 4
(Penalties 1-3)
Hampshire Senior Cup First Round

Fleet Town gave first starts to recent signings Kai Tanner and Andy Matthews, as well as first appearance of the season to the returned Luke Phair in this First round match in the Hampshire Senior Cup.
Fleet, attacking down the slope in the first half started brightly, a good ball forward from Dean Rule picked out Dan Bone on the left of the box, his cross was knocked away by the Tadley defence for Fleet’s first corner on six minutes, the corner went deep to the far post where Andy Matthews was waiting but his header passed wide of the post. From the restart a quick ball from midfield was played over the top into the path of Ashley Neal who smashed the ball into the roof of the net to put Tadley ahead. Fleet shrugged this setback off and soon carved out an excellent opening when Tom Smith played the ball down the left to Dan Bone near the corner, he laid the ball back to Luke Phair to cross to Mal Thomas but hos on target shot got blocked. Fleet levelled after twenty-one minutes when Matt Surmon had the ball thirty yards out and had the space to set himself to fire the ball into the net. Two minutes later Fleet were ahead when Dan Bone beat the Tadley defence to a through ball and tucked it away into the goal. The next attack saw a long pass from Luke Phair out to mal Thomas on the right, he cut in and took the ball round keeper Craig Atkinson, before shooting, but a defender coming back was able to block the shot and clear the danger. A pivotal moment on 31 minutes when a clash on the far side right in front of the linesman ended with the referee showing a Red card to Fleet’s Mal Thomas. After 38 minutes Fleet got the ball into the box, collected by Dean Rule, with his back to the goal, he controlled the ball and turned  to face the goal and shot the ball into the net to put Fleet 3-1 ahead, the score stayed this way until the half time break.
Tadley started the second half strongly and only three minutes into the half, a ball in from ex Fleet Town player Jack French was collected by Ashley Neal who scored again to reduce Tadley’s deficit to just one goal. Moments later Tadley launched a long throw deep into the box with Fleet keeper Callum Backhurst came out and jumped up to collect the ball above the heads of the waiting Tadley forwards. After 56 minutes Tadley were given a free kick about 25 yards out and left of centre, the ball was placed by Jack French and he seemed to stand over it for a long time before firing it direct into the far corner of the net to bring Tadley level. Tadley were getting well on top and Callum Backhurst was by far the busier keeper and he made several saves and blocks to keep Fleet in the game and still create some chances of their own, a quick break to Matt Surmon found him in space and trying to repeat his strike of the first half, this time Keeper Craig Atkinson was able to tip the ball over the bar for a corner. As Fleet continued to press for a winning goal, they found themselves exposed and short at the back as Tadley sub Joe Cummuskey broke downfield with the ball, with Tom Smith in pursuit and when Tom Smith caught him up and both players ended up in a pile on the pitch, the referee gave Tom Smith his second Yellow Card of the game and sent him off, reducing Fleet Town to nine players. In a similar spot to their earlier free kick, this time the responsibility for taking the kick was given to Jordan Goater, despite all of Fleet’s preparations, Goater was able to find a space between the left side of the wall and the near post to fire the free kick direct into the net and put Tadley back into the lead 4-3, after 86 minutes. Chances still came to both sides, Fleet threw Andy Matthews up front from his normal full back position to use his height at the other end, Argjend Ahmetaj for Fleet shot wide, Kieron Farmer for Tadley headed over. There was a long stoppage for treatment to Fleet keeper Callum Backhurst injured after the referee ignored his assistant flagging for a free kick for Fleet and let Tadley play on and attack, which led to Backhurst’s injury in a challenge. The final goal came in the eleventh minute of added time, the ball crossed into the box took a couple of touches before it fell to Cavan Atkinson to slide the ball in and bring the score level at 4-4, which it stayed until the full time whistle.
The game was decided on penalty kicks, with some players that may have been expected to want to take a Penalty already subbed off or sent off, other players stood up and volunteered, but only a regular Penalty taker Dean Rule scored for Fleet and Tadley scored three out of four kicks needed to be taken to win the shootout 3-1 and go through to play Farnborough in the second round on Tuesday 10th.

Fleet :1 Callum Backhurst, 2 Nick Medcraft, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Luke Phair, 5 Cavan Atkinson, 8 Matt Surmon, 9 Dan Bone, 10 Dean Rule, 11 Mal Thomas, 15 Kai Tanner, 18 Andy Matthews

Subs 7 Danilo Cadete, 12 Josh Pound, 14 Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb (on for Bone 57 mins), 16 Argjend Ahmetaj (on for Phair 78 mins), 17 Mihail Marinescu (on for Atkinson 90+11)