Fleetwood Town Reserves 1 Burscough Reserves 1
Lancit Haulage Lancashire League
21st September 2007
Goal: FTFC – Chris Watkinson

Fleetwood turned in their best performance of the season so far but had to rely on a Chris Watkinson goal six minutes from time to secure a point. Town were the more dominant of the two sides throughout the game and can look back on this as two points dropped rather than one point gained. However, that’s not to take anything away from Burscough, whose robust approach made for a very entertaining game. Fleetwood missed a succession of chances with Anthony Warwick perhaps having the best of them when Dax Hoogerwerf played him in on goal. Watkinson also should have done better with close range efforts in both halves.

Late cry offs didn't help Fleetwood’s preparation for this game but the reshuffle seemed to work and they played some attractive football throughout. Mike Hale, in goal, was not called into action at all for an hour but, with Burscough’s only chance of the game dispatched via a couple of ricochets, he found himself picking the ball out of the net. After dominating the game, Town looked shell shocked and it seemed that the clock had beaten them until a bizarre incident six minutes from time. Burscough’s keeper, under pressure from Joel Cowell, dropped the ball at the Town forwards feet. Cowell had the presence of mind to slip the ball to Watkinson who scored with an angled drive from the edge of the box. The home side sensed a win and, but for a couple of tremendous saves from the visiting keeper, they would have taken all three points. However, Burscough can count themselves very unfortunate not to have been awarded a penalty in the final minute following a careless challenge from a Town defender.

Good performance’s all round tonight and, hopefully, Fleetwood can take this form with them when they travel up to Barrow on Monday night.

Fleetwood Team: Mike Hale, Kyle Webster, Christian Dust, Mike Tallentire, Danny Eden, Dax Hoogerwerf, Anthony Warwick, Chris Watkinson, mark Davis, Danny Matthews and Mickey Saunders. Substitutes: Edwards for Matthews 70 mins and Cowell for Saunders on 45 mins.