Billingham Town FC 0 Fleetwood Town FC 4

Saturday September 29th 2007 FA Cup Second Qualifying Round

Crowd 212

Goals: FTFC – Alex Taylor 2, Kieran Walmsley, Steve Foster

Billingham Town’s F.A Cup dream is over after being soundly beaten by Fleetwood Town, 4-0. The visitors from Lancashire looked a cut above as they strode out comfortable victors.

There was a determination about the start that both teams made in this FA Cup second qualifying round encounter. The visitors were buoyed by their travelling army of supporters who were in full voice throughout the game.

There was an early chance for Fleetwood just minutes into the game as a close range header forced a great diving save from Billingham Town ‘keeper, Jason Hamilton. Billingham were starting to feel the pressure and had to clear a Fleetwood header off the line following a close range effort from Michael Brown. After twenty minutes, Billingham’s resistance was broken as Alex Taylor gave Fleetwood a deserved lead. The former Burnley scholar did well to hit a placed left-footed shot into the bottom corner, much to the delight of the visiting support.

The Billingham Town manager called for urgency from his team, as he could see that the game was starting to pull away from his side. The gulf nearly increased further, as a right wing cross saw another point blank header saved well by Hamilton, with a little under ten minutes to go before half time. The home side were lucky to go into the break only 1-0 down.

The message of urgency had clearly been ringing in their ears at half time as Billingham came out for the second half with purpose and direction. Unfortunately, their impressive start to proceedings saw them nearly concede a goal. A swift counter-attacking move from Fleetwood culminated in right wing-back, Walmsley, hitting his shot inches wide of the left hand post.

It was a sign of things to come for Billingham as the F.A Cup run was beginning to look well out of reach. Twenty minutes into the second half, it was all but over for Billingham Town, as a good save from Hamilton, one-on-one, fell kindly for striker Alex Taylor, who dinked the ball delightfully over the floored goalkeeper to make it 2-0. Three minutes later it was to get even worse for the hosts as Walmsley did what he couldn’t do fifteen minutes earlier; put the ball in the back of the net. It was a decisive through ball from Man of the Match Nathan Pond, who found Walker inside right of the penalty area. He took his time and slotted it underneath Hamilton to put the game well and truly beyond Billingham Town. Fleetwood’s fourth goal and third in nine minutes came when striker Steve Foster belted an 18-yard volley past Hamilton. The former Telford man didn’t even need a touch as he smashed the ball high into the net and rounded off a perfect day for Fleetwood. There was a bright spark in the second half for Billingham and that came with the introduction of Matty McQueeny mid-way through the second half. The young striker worked his socks off but was unable to halt Fleetwood’s dominance.

It was a disappointment as far as Billingham Town were concerned, on a chilly and windy afternoon on Teesside, but it just wasn’t their day as they met their match against a superior side.

Report: Sam & Aiden Loughran / Billingham

FTFC Team: Danny Hurst, Kieran Walmsley, Jez Fitzgerald, Martin Moran, Ricky Mercer, Phil Robinson (Guy Heffernan), Michael Brown (Ciaran Donnelly), Nathan Pond, Steve Foster, Alex Taylor (Mickey Saunders), Jamie Milligan Not Used: Shaun Gray, Mike Hale