Match Report: Fleet Town 2 Epsom & Ewell 0
Fleet Town come good in second half to secure another three points to stay in touch with the top group and open up a gap to the chasing pack.
Fleet Town were a little off the pace in the first half, with both sides playing a lot of back and forth ball in midfield there was little goal mouth action and only one corner each in the first quarter of an hour. The first clear opening fell to the visitors after twenty minutes when Luke Miller cut in from the right and shot, from a narrow angle, the ball fizzed across the six yard box and harmlessly past the far post or a relieving goal kick. Fleet soon opened up the Epsom defence for the first time, but Dean Rule’s effort was blocked by a recovering defender but with no control, the ball ran loose to Matt Surmon, who got an instant shot away only for another defender to get part of his body in the way to block his effort. After a powerful run up the right Danilo Cadete played the ball across to Dean Rule, who saw his shot take a deflection off a defender for a corner, but again this was easily cleared. Fleet Town would get the ball up near the box, but attacks failed to develop as when they got there Nick Medcraft or Danilo Cadete would find there was nobody else up for them to pass to and only had option to pass the ball back and start to build forward again. A promising Epsom break was stopped with a hard challenge near the box and the referee gave the visitors a free kick inside the D, taken by Adam Grant-Green he blasted the kick way over the bar. Fleet were saved when a shot/cross from Ethan Nelson-Roberts was put behind for a corner by Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb. Just before half time Fleet managed their first flowing attack with Josh Stepney finding Dean Rule who played in Danilo Cadete in the middle of the box, Danilo closed in on goal and fired the ball into the roof of the net, but to no avail as the officials decided there had been an offside earlier in the build up, so the game remained 0-0 at the interval.
It needed some direction from manager Darryl Evans in his half time team talk to rejuvenate Fleet Town and get them to come out in the second half to play in the manner we know and love. An early chance came when Chike Kandi played the ball forward to Dean Rule, but his shot was easily caught by Daniel O’Donovan in the Epsom goal. Just after the hour mark another Fleet attack had been stopped and the Epsom keeper’s kick out went out for throw to Fleet, near the half way line, a long throw launched forward was flicked to Dean Rule near the far post, he controlled the ball and fired it into the bottom left corner of the net for the opening goal of the game on sixty three minutes. A lot of hard work from Chike Kandi, Dean Rule, Tane Caubo, Danilo Cadete, Fleet threatened to get another goal any time, but it did not happen. Even though the visitors had brought on several pairs of fresh legs, Fleet had held off making any changes until the eighty fifth minute, when Dan Bone came off the bench to add his presence up front, as Fleet had a free kick out on the left side, near the box, a beautiful delivery to Dan Bone, he knocked the ball down to Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb to slot home and double Fleet’s lead on eighty six minutes. As the visitors threw everything forward in the dying minutes, it need two magnificent saves by Finlay Purcell to deny Epsom and keep another clean sheet. Into added time Finlay Purcell cleared the ball to Chike Kandi in midfield who ran through the Epsom players to find Dan Bone in the box to shoot, but was denied by a fine stop by Daniel O’Donovan. The game ended with a 2-0 victory to Fleet Town and vital three points.
There is no rest for Fleet Town, they are back in action again on Tuesday night in the league, at home at The Easy As HGV Stadium, looking for quick revenge on Sandhurst Town, the only side to have beaten them in the league this season, before the excitement of the FA Vase next Saturday away at Tring Athletic.
