Match Report: Fleet Town Up To Sixth With Point at AFC Whyteleafe

Fleet Town returned from the long trip to AFC Whyteleafe on a wet Tuesday night, with a valuable hard earned point and another clean sheet thanks to Finlay Purcell, thus extending their unbeaten start to the season, which has lifted Fleet Town up to sixth position in the league table.

AFC Whyteleafe had to go into this game without Craig Barham-Barrett who is away this week on international duty with Montserrat, but still managed to dominate the early exchanges and create some openings in front of goal, Ryan Gondoh should have done better for the home side but shot wide and then narrowly over before Daniel Bennett failed to convert from close range  and Aaron Goode fired a screamer over from 25 yards over the bar. The frustration of his misses built up in Ryan Gondoh and led to him being shown a Red Card after 38 minutes.

Going down to ten players did not change how Whyteleafe set about the game, they continued to attack as the best way to push Fleet back and stop their normal free flowing attacking style of play and in first half added time forced Finley Purcell into a save where he had to get down to a shot and turn it around the post for a corner, but Fleet’s defence stood firm and the home side could not make a break through before the break.

Whyteleafe started the second half on the front foot, still concentrating on attack looking for the opening goal, this was almost their undoing, only four minutes into the half, their keeper James Shaw had to make a save from close range. Soon at the other end Eric De Malo came close to an opener from a corner. After about an hout Whyteleafe showed signs of tiring due to the effort of playing with only ten men on the pitch. Into the final twenty minutes Fleet Town were able to get more of the ball and created several chances from close in or shooting from distance, but could not make any of them count and sneak a winner, the game finished in an entertaining goalless stalemate, with Fleet happy(ish) to take the point, while Whyteleafe were considering it points dropped as they were held to their first draw of the season.

As both Redhill and Jersey Bulls both won again on the night, we are still one of three unbeaten sides in this division.