Match Report: Fleet Town 5-2 Sandhurst Town
Fleet Town returned to the pitch, for the first time since before Christmas, for the Combined Counties League match at The Mustard Seed Stadium, against local rivals Sandhurst Town, who have had some improved results recently after their slow start to the season.
Sandhurst Town made the better start to the game, some fast accurate passing action saw them pile early pressure on the Fleet Town defence and created several openings only for the final shots to be way off target, eventually one effort was closer, but struck the post and bounced back into play for Sandhurst to get a follow up effort, which was fired over the bar. After their lucky escapes and absorbing all the Sandhurst pressure, it was Fleet Town that struck first when Dan Bone collected the ball in midfield he drove forward and cutting into the left side of the box he curled his shot into the top right corner of the net, to put Fleet ahead on 27 minutes. Only eleven minutes later Fleet were able to double their lead, when a corner from Sam Marks fell perfectly for Dan Bone to head the ball in for his second goal of the afternoon. By now Fleet’s defence was back to its best with Rayon Atkinson and Josh Nunes closing down the Sandhurst moves before they got close to the goal. A minute before the break Mihail Marinescu got his name on the score sheet, his shot taking a wicked deflection off a Sandhurst defender to leave the keeper stranded and no chance of reaching the ball. The half time whistle came with Fleet 3-0 to the good, giving Sandhurst fifteen minutes to come up with a new plan to find a way back into the game in the second half.
The second half started with Fleet Town pushing forward and looking for more goals to kill the match off quickly, Brad Manning and Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb combined up the right, under pressure from two defenders, Fareed kept the ball, he played the ball back to Josh Nunes, waiting in space, just outside of the box, somehow Sandhurst got a touch to Josh Nunes shot to deflect it for a corner. Fleet did not have to wait long to add to the score, on 53 minutes a ball into the box found Mihail Marinescu in space and he lobbed the visitors keeper for his second goal of the day to make it 4-0. Fleet Town were now full of confidence and knocking the ball around with style, one flowing move deserved a goal, Josh Nunes combined with Dan Bone to play in Brad Manning, his shot was blocked by the keeper and came out to Mihail Marinescu but his effort was deflected for another corner. Fleet piled the pressure on from the corner Sam marks delivered the ball in under the crossbar, touched off a Fleet head the ball was cleared off the line and hit straight back in against the bar and the ball found its way back to Dan Bone to fire through a crowd of players into the net to complete his hat-trick and put Fleet five goals to the good after 63 minutes. Only a minute later Fleet should have added another the ball played into the box to Mihail Marinescu, in space and having time to pick his spot, he rushed his effort and it hit high up the bar to bounce over and away. Fleet continued to create chances down the right with Brad Manning finding Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb, who teased and beat his markers time and again, but no one was able to convert the chances he set up. With the match looking safe, As Fleet started to rest some of the hard working dangerous players, Sandhurst brought on some fresh legs and they came back into the game, a long clearance found Ewan Lynch who beat the last Fleet defender to make space to shoot a score after 77 minutes, Sandhurst scored a second consolation through Harvey Seeman from the Penalty spot on 86 minutes, Fleet stayed strong and saw the game out to complete another fine victory in front of a healthy above average crowd of 327.
FLEET TOWN:
1 Lee Burch, 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, 17 Mihail Marinescu, 18 Dan Bone
SUBS:
10 Naz Miah (on for Surmon 64 mins), 11 TJ Taylor (on for Bone 71 mins), 12 Will McDonald (on for Hakeem-Habeeb 79 mins), 15 Raphael Azimi (on for Marinescu 79 mins), 14 James Gorman (not used)
Fleet Town are back in action on Saturday 13th January, away to Horley Town in the Combined Counties Premier Division South.
Match report written by Harry Cannon.
