Fleetwood Town FC 1 Radcliffe Borough FC 3

Saturday August 11th 2007 Pre Season Friendly

Crowd 231

Goals: FTFC – Steve Foster RBFC – Michael Oates 2, Ian Fitzpatrick

It was only three months ago that Radcliffe finally put paid to our promotion hopes in an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at Highbury. They were subsequently relegated to Division 1 and their new team is made up of new faces hoping to revive the club’s flagging fortunes. Although they could only manage a squad of twelve on the day they eventually outplayed Fleetwood once again much to the delight of their travelling fans.

The first half was a goal-less drab affair with Fleetwood trying to play pretty passing football that usually failed to find the final man. The Radcliffe defenders were no mugs and prompted some good attacks of their own and had several corners that came to nothing. After 10 minutes Taylor should have scored after being put through by triallist Donnelley but the keeper managed to block his shot. Ten minutes later a headed pass from Richie Allen put Andy Bell in but the keeper just managed to get a hand to the ball and push it wide. Bell had another chance following a back pass free kick in the area but shot wide from the subsequent corner. Radcliffe had their best chance of the first half on 40 minutes when Moran was caught out but fortunately the shot flew well wide of a gaping goal.

Within one minute of the restart Radcliffe’s lone substitute Michael Oates headed in a free kick at the far post. Ten minutes later the same man scored from twenty yards with Hale flailing. Town eventually picked themselves up and on the hour Foster had a tap in after good work from Milligan and Denney. Two minutes later Foster should have equalised after Allen broke down the wing and crossed to his feet but he was just wide from ten yards. Radcliffe wrapped things up on 85 minutes when Shaun Gray let Oates get away from him and his pass was clinically finished by Fitzpatrick. Milligan had a long range effort well saved by Robertson but it was too little too late. Although Fleetwood had more possession throughout the game they were not as hungry as Borough. It seemed as though this was one pre-season game too many for the players and it was a disappointing end to what had been a good run.

FTFC Squad: Mike Hale, Guy Heffernan, Jez Fitzgerald, (C ), Martin Moran, Shaun Gray, Phil Robinson, Michael Brown, Ciaran Donnelley, Andy Bell, Alex Taylor, Richie Allen, Phil Denney, Kyle Webster, Jamie Milligan and Steve Foster
RBFC Squad: Andy Robertson, Matty O’Neill, Tony Whealing, Simon Kelly (C), Steve Howson, Lee Connell, Andy Waine, Martin Forrest, Lee Hendley, Ian Fitzpatrick, Jamie Kay and Michael Oates.

Officials: Barry Cropp (Referee), Mark Bates and Ben MacDonald