Fleetwood Town FC 6 Oldham Town FC 3

Saturday July 28^th 2007 Pre Season Friendly

Crowd 151

Goals: FTFC – Jamie Milligan (79min, 84min), Phil Denney (29min, 40min), Steve Foster (69min), Jez Fitzgerald (83min) OTFC – Matty Small (33min), James Curley (58min), John Phillips (53min)

The last time these two teams met was in the Bass NWCFL Div 2 in 1998 and Fleetwood hammered nineteen goals past them in the course of two league games. It was understandable therefore, before the game, to assume that this was going to be a bit of target practice against such lowly opponents. Oldham Town, however, had different ideas! Traffic congestion caused a fifteen minute delay to kick off but it was the home side who were quicker out of the blocks and Andy Bell shot just over in the first minute. Just two minutes later Oldham broke free and only sound defending saved an early equaliser.

Fleetwood began to settle into a rhythm and Milligan’s passing tore large holes in the Oldham defence. The Oldham keeper looked particularly vulnerable with some dreadful goal kicks and poor distribution. Michael Brown headed just wide after ten minutes and a few minutes later Milligan had a good shot saved. Oldham were always looking to break away down both flanks when they managed to get possession and after thirteen minutes an Oldham effort was fortuitously kicked off the line by a Town defender. Fleetwood’s pressure finally told after twenty nine minutes when Brown put Denny through and the big man made no mistake. Oldham, surprisingly, came straight back and just four minutes later Matty Small, who made a real nuisance of himself all afternoon, struck home to make it 1-1. Fleetwood continued to miss chances until Denney grabbed his second on forty minutes. From a Milligan pass Andy Bell charged down the left wing and crossed the ball right into his path and from four yards he couldn’t really miss. Denney almost got his hat trick just before half time but he just failed to direct his header in from a cross to the far post. There were two more very close efforts from Bell and Gray in the closing seconds but, at the break, only one goal separated the teams when it should have been three or four.

All six substitutes came on for Fleetwood at the start of the second half and things became a little ragged. Despite a save to deny an Alex Taylor effort after fifty one minutes Oldham were still defending stoutly and it was no real surprise when they equalised from a John Phillips shot into the far corner from the edge of the box. Five minutes later they missed a much easier chance as Fleetwood’s defence began to lose composure. Substitute keeper Mike Hale then made a hash of a goal kick when he stubbed it straight to the feet of James Curley who said ‘thank you very much’ and we were 3-2 down with half an hour left! Fleetwood then decided that enough was enough and grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. After a Smith header was cleared off the line from a corner Foster then scored his debut goal after a neat one two with Milligan. Fleetwood then secured the game with three a goal blitz in five minutes. Firstly, Milligan scored after a neat pass from AlexTaylor then Fitzgerald curled a free kick in from outside the area and finally Milligan got his second after some great interplay with Richard Allen.

All credit to Oldham Town for stepping in at short notice to cover Spennymoor’s fixture. They certainly gave us a game and they may be a good bet for promotion this season if they can reproduce this sort of plucky performance in their league fixtures.

FTFC Squad: Danny Hurst, Guy Heffernan, Shaun Gray, Phil Robinson, Johnathon Smith, Mark Davis, Michael Brown, Jamie Milligan, Phil Denney, Andy Bell, Jez Fitzgerald [C], Steve Foster, Martin Moran, Richie Allen, Liam Maloney, Alex Taylor, Mike Hale

Oldham Squad: Sam Smith, Lee Deakin, John Phillips, Ryan Hewitt, Justin Andrews, Matty Russell, Sean Sherwood, James Curley, Matty Small, Tom Hughes, Cary Chadderton, Matt Lee, Chris Fuller, Chris Hallton, Richard Halton, Jon Rogers, Peter Cunncar and Darren Scanlon.

Officials: Scott Oldham (Referee), S Smith and P Morley