Match Report: Balham 2-2 Fleet Town
Fleet returned from their Wednesday night trip to Croydon with a point from the re-arranged match against play off contenders Balham, after the initial fixture was abandoned back in November.
In a tight game between these closely matched sides, there were not too many openings in the first half hour, the best falling to Fleet Town when Rayon Atkinson headed wide of the post. Just when it looked as if the first half would finish goalless Fleet were awarded a penalty in the final minute of the half, after the usual delay with complaints from the defending side, Dan Bone kept his cool as he waited to take the kick and when the time came, he calmly stroked the ball into the bottom right corner of the net, so Fleet Town went into the interval 1-0 ahead.
Balham came out for the second half determined to fight their way back into the game, only five minutes into the half when another Fleet attack was stopped, a counter attack from Balham saw James Adebayo play the ball into James Anderson to fire in an equaliser. Fleet were still getting most of the possession and the travelling support only had to wait ten minutes before seeing Fleet retake the lead when Dan Bone smashed the ball into the roof of the net to put Fleet Town 2-1 ahead. Again Balham only played their best football when they were behind and after 74 minutes pegged Fleet back again when Piers Oldland found the net to equalise. The Balham defence then held firm to keep Fleet out and the game finished in a 2-2 draw, this being Fleet Town’s first away draw of the season and also Balham’s first home draw of the season.
Fleet Town are back in action on Tuesday night (February 13th) with a home League game against Alton at The Mustard Seed Stadium with a 7:45 PM kick off.
FLEET TOWN:
1 Joel Halliday, 2 Brad Manning, 3 Sam Marks, 4 Joe Wotton, 5 Liam Pestle, 6 Rayon Atkinson, 7 Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb, 8 Luke Phair, 9 Louis Blake, 10 Matt Surmon, 18 Dan Bone
SUBS:
12 TJ Taylor (on for Atkinson 55 mins), 14 Naz Miah (on for Wotton 87 mins), 15 Elliott Hunt (not used), 16 Will McDonald (not used), 17 Mihail Marinescu (not used)
