Chorley FC 3 Fleetwood Town FC 1

Tuesday December 4th 2007 LFA Co-operative Challenge Trophy Quarter Final

Crowd 130

Goal: FTFC – Phil Denney

With the Reserve team having their first game since November 10^th rained off last Friday, Tony Greenwood was desperate to get some football action for the first team squad members who were not in the Guiseley starting line up. Peter Wright, Shaun Beeley and Jerome Watt were all cuptied and so Joel Cowell and Anthony Warwick also made the bench. The crowd of 130 was, perhaps, not unusual for this competition, but it was not helped by a major hold up on the M55 which saw some of the Cod Army still drifting into the ground well into the second half, whilst others, no doubt getting score updates on their mobiles, gave up and went home.

Fleetwood started confidently enough, well, until the third minute, when Chorley wandered upfield and scored. That really set the pattern for the game; Town scratching around at the Chorley end without creating any clear cut chances, and Chorley occasionally nipping down the other end to threaten Hibbert’s goal. Nathan Pond, playing because he felt he needed a game after missing Guiseley through suspension, picked up a booking and a muscle strain, and left the field just on half time. Phil Denney eventually made the score 1-3 in the seventieth minute, nodding in at the far post. Even then, the surviving Cods thought we would finally click, but no-one else shared their belief and the game petered out. And we went home as well.

Even Chorley weren’t worth watching. I made it that the victors scored their three from just five attempts on goal! Nuff said.

Team: Hibbert, Walmsley, Fitzgerald, Gray, Moran, Pond [Cowell], Brown, Donnelly [Milligan], Foster, Denney, Allen [Warwick] Unused: Hale, Mercer