Garstang Vs Fleetwood Town
Result : 1 - 4
Lancashire Evening Post Sunday League
Lancashire Evening Post Sunday League
With another win in the Syndicate cup it was back to league action for Fleetwood Town in the Lancashire Evening Post League.
Town travelled the short distance away to Garstang with a strong squad and they had to be at their best in this fixture. For team captain Jake Salisbury who lives in Garstang it was a derby day and in his own words losing was not an option.
Town starting line up included Oliver Crolla and Lewis Phillips. Both players will be hoping for a call up to the squad for Wednesday nights game. Alex Bethel returned to his normal position at centre half to partner Francis Donaghy and Ash McGough moved to right back.
It took both teams time to adapt to the conditions, although the Garstang management had obviously worked extremely hard to get the game on in the first place, the playing surface was still heavy and players were making unforced errors.
Town took the lead on 15 minutes when Lewis Phillips, who had been in excellent form delivered another great ball into the Garstang box and Leigh Clark smashed the ball home. The game then became scrappy, for ten minutes Fleetwood stopped playing their usual passing game and got involved in a battle in midfield. This was expected especially with the passion shown by Towns captain. However during this period a mistake by the usually imperturbable town defence allowed Garstang to equal the score.
It was Lewis Phillips who got Fleetwood’s second on Thirty mins. A ball played into the Garstang penalty area was bouncing around and he reacted first. His low drive flew past the stranded keeper.
Fleetwood were good value for the lead at the interval however injuries to Crolla and Phillips necessitated changes. Dom Amos came on into midfield and Joe Higgins as striker both were to play a crucial part in the eventual outcome of the game.
Garstang started the second period on top and would have equalised had it not been for the outstanding Town keeper Joe Wheeler who made an excellent save and reacted even better to the follow up shot from the striker
Joe Higgins then turned the game for Fleetwood in a extraordinary five minutes of play that saw him show just what an exciting playing he can be. He received the ball just into the Garstang half and ran at the defence beating at least four challenges he neatly pulled the ball back for Amos to score his first of the season.
Four minutes later it was Higgins again with a carbon copy this time he found leading scorer Atack who calmly slotted the ball home.
With the pitch deteriorating and the players from both sides flagging the game was professionally played out by Fleetwood who controlled the tempo in the final ten minutes for a well earned victory.
After the game Assistant manager Steve Kershaw said “We did well in the first half and looked good going forward. Defensively as a team we were poor but seemed to put that right in the second half. The lads that came into the squad did well specifically Joe Higgins who turned the game for us.”
Scorers: Clark, Phillips, Amos, Atack
Squad: Wheeler. McGough. Bethel. Donaghy. Rankine. Clarke. Salisbury. Crolla. Phillips. Atack. Wood
Subs; Cawley. Price. Higgins. Amos. Thewlis.
outh Division 1 (Reds)
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | -Pt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thornton Cleveleys | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 9 | - |
| 2 | Lostock St Gerards | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 6 | - |
| 3 | Fleetwood Town | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 6 | - |
| 4 | Fylde | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | - |
| 5 | Caton | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | - |
| 6 | Morecambe Hawk | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 3 | - |
| 7 | Garstang | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 9 | -2 | 3 | - |
| 8 | Warton Typhoons | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 15 | -6 | 3 | - |
| 9 | Lostock Hall Sports Club | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 0 | - |
