Fleetwood Town v AFC Telford

 By Sam Heaney

Fleetwood had to change their line-up from the one that started Tuesday’s 5-2 victory against Kidderminster. Town suffered a huge blow losing both Jamie Vardy for a straight red and Jamie McGuire who was banned after the full time whistle due to video evidence. The 3 match dismissals  saw Keith Briggs and Sean Clancy step into the starting 11.

Second half substitution Richard Brodie scored 2 late goals to rescue Town from suffering their first home defeat of the season after the lilywhites shocked the Cods taking a 2 goal lead. Fleetwood dominated the game throughout but 2 goals from poor defending asked questions about the club.

Early chances came as Brown ran from deep to link up with Seddon and Mangan resulting in it landing at the feet of Magno Vieira whose left footed effort on the turn was only half-saved by keeper Young who managed to recover quick enough to pounce on the ball before it crossed the goal line. The majority of Town’s attacks came down the left with Brown and Clancy causing all sorts of problems for the Bucks.

Telford had to wait until the 7th minute before their first real chance when Sean Newton’s dangerous cross from the left forced Rob Atkinson into an important defensive flick with his toe taking it of the foot of Andy Brown who looked a certainty to score. 6 minutes later saw Clancy break through and had his wrong footed effort deflected wide also Mangan on the right decided he wanted his say in the game when he found his right foot volley blocked and land this time onto Andy’s left foot which flew over the crossbar.

Fleetwood’s domination meant that Telford’s next real chance came from a 30 yard driven strike by Sharp which saw Scott Davies get down low to make a finger tip save down to his right. It seemed to be a case of how long before Fleetwood scored as they applied the pressure.

The away opposition rallied the first half battering and took their chance against the run of play after Andy Brown won  a corner from the left hand side which resulted in the opening goal after the corner met the head of captain Killok who powered the ball past Scott Davies in the Town goal. The goal gave Telford a lift and they had one more good chance before the break coming from the number 20 Richard Davies running at the defence from the right before he triggered his shot which was equally matched by a superb save from the man between the sticks.

Fleetwood looked for a bright start and did so with Junior Brown chipping the ball down the line to the ever-running Magno Vieira whos touch un-familiarly let him down as the ball ran out of play. The 49th minute saw Fleetwood go for a change of emphasis as Clancy was replaced by Brodie. It looked to be a promising change as Brodie first contribution won a corner which resulted in a weak McNulty header that went wide. The home team pushed further on as Briggs and Vieira both came close to scoring. However the tale of the first goal happened again as Telford attacked just before the hour mark down the right as Sharps whipped cross along the face of goal flew past the sliding centre half’s for Fleetwood before finding Newton un marked at the back post who tidily placed a left foot finish into the roof of the net.

Midfielder Scott Brown replaced full back Beeley on the 63rd minute which gave Fleetwood real flair as the game got increasingly tense. 15 minutes to go a near post corner found Brodie who flicked his header goal words bringing out a great save from Young, this time the corner on the opposite side. Again the same run from Brodie found his powerful header too much for Young to keep out. This promised to make it an interesting finale. Although 5 minutes from the end a loose pass from Mangan was picked up on the right by Proudlock whom ran at the Fleetwood defence before crossing the ball to a sliding Samuels who couldn’t follow the script for Telford.

With 4 minutes to go and Fleetwood playing with 4 Strikers on the field Richard Brodie picked the ball up in the area with a minute to play and slotted a firm side footed shot into the back of the net through a crowd of players for his 3rd goal of the season.  The never say die attitude payed off for Town and the full time whistle was met with a huge applaud from everyone in the ground.