Match Report: Fleet Town 3-1 Tadley Calleva
Fleet Town went into this match looking for a good result to shut out the memory of the late loss at Camberley in the last game and send all their fans home happy with an early Christmas present of three points.
A strong start from Fleet Town forced Tadley onto the back foot, their attempts to stop Fleet soon earned them the ire of the referee and ex Fleet player Jack French picked up Tadley’s first Yellow card of the game after only four minutes. With Fleet building attack after attack, Tadley were forced to give away several corners and it was from one of these taken by Sam Marks picked out Louis Blake in the six yard box to head Fleet into a deserved lead after fourteen minutes. Strong defensive performances by Rayon Atkinson and Josh Nunes cleared up the occasional Tadley attacking threat leaving Joel Haliday to have a quieter afternoon in the Fleet goal. Fleet Town were looking dangerous in attack forcing Tadley Calleva keeper Craig Atkinson to make vital saves from Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb and Mihail Marinescu to keep the score down. Just before the break Louis Blake controlled the ball in the box and shot but Atkinson pulled off a save but did not control the ball and it rolled straight back to Louis Blake, he controlled the ball and lobbed it back over the prone Atkinson into the net to put Fleet two goals to the good in the 45th minute. The score remained at 2-0 when the sides took their half time break.
As Tadley players racked up more Yellow cards some of their players had to be more careful with their challenges and this gave the Fleet side more freedom to show their skills. On 71 minutes Fleet attacked through Fareed Hakeem-Habeed, his run was stopped by a serious foul, which would end his participation in the game, but as Matt Surmon had collected the ball, the referee played advantage and Surmon fired the ball home from twenty yards to put Fleet three goals ahead. Shortly after this Dan Bone ran through the Tadley defence and keeper Atkinson came out to try and stop him, Dan Bone took the ball back and shot into the empty net, but the referee gave a free kick to Tadley as he thought there was contact between Bone and the keeper. The final few minutes saw Tadley create a couple of chances, one bringing a fine save from Haliday on the goal line but Tadley got a consolation goal after 84 minutes when Sheldon Wright ran down the right and cut in to the edge of the box to fire a fierce shot past Haliday into the net. The last chance of the game fell to Fleet in added time when a cross from the left by T.J Taylor reached Dan Bone but his touch passed wide of the goal. The game finished with a 3-1 win for Fleet Town sending Fleet supporters home happy for Christmas and looking forward to next Saturday’s trip to Spelthorne Sports.
FLEET TOWN:
1 Joel Halliday, 2 Brad Manning, 3 Sam Marks, 4 Josh Nunes, 5 Liam Pestle, 6 Rayon Atkinson, 7 Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb, 8 Matt Surmon, 9 Louis Blake, 10 Joe Wotton, 17 Mihail Marinescu
SUBS:
12 Matt Pearse (not used), 14 Raphael Azimi (on for Wotton 61 mins), TJ Taylor (on for Hakeem-Habeeb 72 mins), 16 Naz Miah (on for Surmon 81 mins), 18 Dan Bone (on for Blake 66 mins)
Fleet are back on the road next Saturday as they take on Spelthorne Sports in their final game of 2023 (Saturday 30th December, 3:00 PM KO).
Match report written by Harry Cannon.
