Match Report: Horley Town 2-3 Fleet Town
Fleet Town travelled to the outskirts of Gatwick Airport on a cold Saturday afternoon to take on Horley Town in a Combined Counties Premier Division South fixture.
In what turned out to be the usual close game between these sides, Horley shaded overall possession and chances but did less with their opportunities than Fleet who were more clinical in front of goal. Horley had the first good chance, after eight minutes but Sam Harper shot wide of the goal. Only five minutes later, Fleet made Horley pay for their miss when Dan Bone collected a loose ball, after the Horley keeper threw the ball and hit his own player on the back, and fired the ball into the roof of the net to give Fleet Town an early lead. Fleet had an excellent chance to double their advantage only four minutes later but Josh Nunes was denied by a fine save from the home keeper George Hyde. Fleet managed to keep their noses in front until well into first half added time when Horley took an attacking throw-in which led to a dangerous cross into the box, which was deflected off a Fleet defender past Lee Burch into the goal to give Horley a fortuitous equaliser. The game reached the break at 1-1 with Horley the happier of the two sides.
Now into the second half, on 64 minutes the referee gave a penalty to the home side, taken by Jake Roberts, the initial kick was kept out by Lee Burch, but Josh Alder was first to reach the ball for Horley and steered the ball into the net to give Horley the lead for the first time of the afternoon. Only four minutes later Fleet were given a Penalty of their own, which was taken by Mihail Marinescu, who clinically found the net to equalise the score. The game was settled after 79 minutes when Luke Phair, who had only been on for a few minutes, slid the perfect ball to Dan Bone to fire into the corner of the net to give Fleet a 3-2 lead, which they held onto and Fleet came away with all 3 points.
FLEET TOWN:
13 Lee Burch, 2 Brad Manning, 3 Sam Marks, 4 Josh Nunes, 5 Liam Pestle, 6 Rayon Atkinson, 8 Matt Surmon, 9 Louis Blake, 10 Joe Wotton, 17 Mihail Marinescu, 18 Dan Bone
SUBS:
11 Naz Miah (on for Bone 87 mins), 12 Luke Phair (on for Wotton 72 mins), 13 Jubril Hassan (on for Blake 56 mins), 14 James Gorman (on for Nunes 72 mins), 15 Raphael Azimi (not used)
As Jersey Bulls progressed in the FA Vase today, our league home match against them in February will need to be rescheduled.
Fleet Town are due back in action on Tuesday night (16th) in the Aldershot Senior Cup against Aldershot Town U21 at The Mustard Seed Stadium and at home again next Saturday in the League against Alton. Given the cold weather forecast, please check the clubs social media feeds to make sure the games will be played as scheduled.
