Fleetwood Town Vs Thornton Cleveleys
Result : 2 - 0
09-01-2011
Sunday Syndicate Cup Semi Final
Fleetwood Town reached the Final of the L.E.P. Syndicate Trust Cup with an extremely hard fought victory against local rivals Thornton Cleveleys Football Club.
After two postponements both teams were pleased to eventually get this fixture on at a blustery Preston Arena.
Town started the game brightly with good passing moves and some tenacious tackling and closing down in midfield but Thornton soon found their form. The midfield battle between Fleetwood’s Jake Salisbury and Mike McAlpine and Thornton Cleveleys’s Ash Bird and Jake White was fascinating with both set of players determined to put their mark on the game.
Up front Fleetwood’s Joe Higgins and Tyler Atack were causing the Thornton defence problems with Higgins hitting the post after just four minutes. However the Fleetwood defence knew Thornton’s leading goal scorer Liam McDonald with his frightening pace could explode into action at any time.
Fleetwood went ahead after just seven minutes when Fran Donaghy took advantage of the blustery conditions and launched a missile of a throw into the Thornton penalty area and Atack flicked the ball past the stranded keeper.
Thornton then showed just what a very good side they are and created some excellent chances themselves particularly down the left wing where Ben Cox was a constant threat and Towns keeper Joe Wheeler had to be on top of his game
Fleetwood took a slender 1-0 lead into the break. During the interval the message from the Fleetwood coaching staff was simple. “Move the ball quicker and the chances will come" and in the second period that’s exactly what the young Fleetwood Town players did and they looked sharper and more dangerous and had Thornton on the back foot for most of the half.
On 55 minute Fleetwood extended their lead with a very good finish from Jordan Wood after another superb run by Lewis Phillips who had been a thorn in the Thornton side all game with his driving runs into the box.
Fleetwood should have gone on and won the game comfortably and would have done so but for the excellent defending by Thornton’s Sam Johnson and James Neve who were oustanding for Thornton
After the game manager Mark Bowley said “It was a very good professional performance by the lads against our local rivals. We had a few injuries and players missing today but the lads that have come in have done an excellent job.
I have huge respect for Thornton Cleveleys Football Club, the players and specifically the management team who were magnanimous in defeat as they were in victory. We have been made to work hard for the victory today but in the end I think we deserved to go through
Scorers : Atack, Wood
Squad : Wheeler, McGough, Donaghy, Bethell, Rankin, Wood, McAlpine, Salisbury, Philips, Atack, Higgins.
Subs : Crolla, Walker,
Unused Subs : Clark, Ogden, Eastwood
Man of the Match : Alex Bethel outstanding at the heart of the defence. His reading of the game meant he was always in the correct place to stop any potential threat.
