Match Report – Fleet Town Up To 5th Following Home Win Over Spelthorne Sports

Fleet Town moved up into a play off position with a 3-1 victory, playing one of their games in hand on the other top sides, in the only game in the division on Tuesday night.

Fleet created an early chance, as they looked for their first double of the season, having already won at Spelthorne earlier in the season, Tom Smith played the ball on to Dean Rule, he crossed to Chike Kandi, but his shot was easily collected by Spelthorne keeper Zack Basey. Another attack soon followed when Danilo Cadete ran onto a long ball and he crossed into the area, but a defender got his head to the ball first and knocked it behind for a corner to Fleet, when this was played in, it was cleared by Spelthorne. After this bright start there was a spell of untidy Football as both sides gave the ball away in midfield.

This all changed after twenty minutes with a super run down the right by Danilo Cadete, he knocked a cross over to the middle of the box, where Tane Caubo threw himself at the ball to head it into the net to give Fleet Town the lead. A couple of minutes after the goal, Fleet were forced into an early change when Tom Smith was forced to leave the action, he was replaced by Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb. It was not long before Fleet extended their advantage, Tane Caubo ran forward with the ball and as he approached the box Spelthorne’s keeper Zack Basey came out to meet him and stopped him dead in his tracks, as players and fans appealed to the referee, the ball had run loose and Danilo Cadete was first to react and chased after the ball and knock it into the empty net, as the keeper stood waiting and expecting the whistle and card for his challenge on Caubo, but the referee was happy just to award to goal to Fleet, with no punishment for keeper Basey. After Thirty-Four minutes Josh Stepney hit a long ball from the back out to the right where Tane Caubo and Danilo Cadete combined to cross the ball over to Dean Rule on the left, he cut in and made space to get a shot away, which found the back of the net to put Fleet Town 3-0 ahead. Just before half time Spelthorne were given a free kick twenty yards out towards the right hand side, Dwayne Clark took the kick, he knocked it over to the far side of the box, where it was headed down into the path of Daniel Watts who smashed the ball past Finley Purcell to pull a goal back for the visitors. Half time was soon reached with Fleet Town leading 3-1.

Liam Pestle who had picked up a knock in the first half was not risked after the break, the armband being passed to Nick Medcraft, Liam was replaced by Lekan Osideko for the second half. Fleet had a great chance almost immediately Tane Caubo ran through into the box, this time the keeper did not rush in to challenge and Tane took the ball round him and shot, but a retreating defender was able to reach the ball to clear it off the line. Several times Fleet came up the right with Lekan Osideko, Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb and Nick Medcraft combining to knock over dangerous crosses from the top right or to take shots but Fleet were unable to add to the score. Finlay Purcell was in fantastic form at the other end as he pulled off a string of saves from close range efforts, including one world class full length diving save, to deny Spelthorne any hope of getting back into the game. Fleet brought on one of this weeks three new signings, Ross Obazee for his first minutes replacing Tane Caubo who had needed treatment a couple of times following his first half coming together with the visitors keeper. The game finished with the same 3-1 score line as it was at half time, leaving Spelthorne rooted to the bottom of the table, a good team performance to send most of the crowd home happy.