Match report: Sheerwater 2-4 Fleet Town
Fleet Town started the post Jermaine era on the road at Sheerwater, under the guidance of Elliot Hunt and Tommy Taylor, Fleet were able to name the same starting eleven as last Saturday’s game v Tooting & Mitcham.
Fleet had the perfect start to the game from their first attack Connor Young was hauled down in the box in the first minute, Connor placed the ball on the spot to take the penalty himself and he made no mistake in powering it into the net to give Fleet Town the lead on Two Minutes. Sheerwater were able to threaten when they collected loose balls or poorly executed clearances, but they were unable to make anything of the chances, two shots by Morris Musslewhite being harmlessly off target. Following good build up play from Malcolm Dixon, the ball was fed on to Rayon Atkinson, his shot from outside of the box flew into the top right of the net to double Fleet’s lead on 23 minutes. Sheerwater got lucky five minutes later a shot from Elliott York was blocked but the ball ran back to York to have another shot and this time he found a gap to get the ball into the net. Spurred on by this Sheerwater carved out a few openings to try and level the game up and again it was Morris Musslewhite taking the shots and having two efforts blocked. Fleet were able to control the final minutes of the half to make sure they got to half time, still 2-1 in the lead.Fleet Town were forced into an unplanned change early in the second half, when speedy winger Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb received a leg injury in a heavy challenge. Fleet scored their second powerful goal of the afternoon on 72 minutes when Luke Phair made his way forward and shot from out wide across the goal into the bottom left corner of the net for Fleet’s third goal of the afternoon. Connor Young soon had the chance to make the game safe, clean through and only the keeper to beat, his shot cleared the bar, but Fleet did not have to wait long for goal number 4, when sub Mihail Marinescu drove into the box and stroked the ball between keeper Wilson and the post to put Fleet 4-1 ahead. Liam Avery got a late consolation for Sheerwater but Fleet saw the game out to complete a fine 4-2 win.
FLEET TOWN:
1 Callum Smart, 2 Rayon Atkinson, 3 Mohamed Konte, 4 Luke Phair, 5 Liam Pestle, 6 Josh Nunes, 7 Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb, 8 Malcom Dixon, 9 Louis Blake, 10 Connor Young, 11 Sam Marks.
SUBS:
12 Bradley Manning (on for Atkinson 82 mins), 14 Mihail Marinescu (on for Hakeem-Habeeb 55 mins), 15 Naz Miah (on for Dixon 70 mins), 17 Tommy J Taylor (on for Konte 88 mins) – Not used 16 Olu Ayoeji.
Fleet are back in action next Saturday, in the first round proper of the FA Vase, at home to Amersham Town.
