Nathan Rooney's side overcome strong Tranmere side
Fleetwood Town under 18’s claimed back to back wins after coming from a goal down to claim a 3-1 win at home to Tranmere in the North-West Youth Alliance League.
Goals from Lewis Shorrock, Dan Mooney and Gerard Garner gave Nathan Rooney’s free scoring side the victory at Poolfoot Farm.
However, Tranmere had started the brighter of the two sides and went ahead just before the half hour mark through a tap in at the far post after Fleetwood had failed to deal with a cross from the right.
minute courtesy of some brilliance from midfielder Shorrock. Picking up the ball in the centre circle, Shorrock drove it wide and continued his run. He picked it up again around 20 yards out from Mooney’s set back, moved the ball out of his feet and struck a wonderful shot into the top corner, giving the goalkeeper no chance.stThe goal brought a reaction from the home side and the equaliser came in the 41
minute. It was tapped home from close range by Dan ndAfter the interval, Fleetwood continued with the same impetus that they had finished the first half of the match. The home side were rewarded for this when they took the lead in the 52Mooney and had followed a sweeping counter attack down the Fleetwood right. Garner’s left footed shot from outside the area was palmed away by the Tranmere keeper and Mooney was quickest to react by following in and tapping home the rebound.
Tranmere tried to fight their way back into the game and had a fair amount of possession in Fleetwood’s half. However, Harry Turner was rarely troubled in the Fleetwood goal and the home side always looked dangerous on the counter attack.
The game was finished as a contest 15 minutes from time as Garner volleyed home for Fleetwood. Playing out from the back, Harrison Holgate received the ball from goalkeeper Turner and played a long ball over the top looking for the run of the impressive Shorrock. A stretching header from the Tranmere centre back only helped the ball into Shorrock’s path and his effort was blocked well by the onrushing goalkeeper. The rebound fell kindly to substitute Connor Finlayson and his pass back to Shorrock allowed him to chip the ball into the path of Garner who confidently volleyed the ball into the back of the net.
Overall it was a positive performance from Nathan Rooney’s Fleetwood side, particularly in the second half and the manner of the performance highlights the confidence his side have of late.
Fleetwood have now lost only one of their last five in the league and scored an impressive 15 goals in this time, contributing to them being one of the league’s highest scoring sides.
After the game, Assistant Manager Mason Mcclelland spoke of the game and outlined his pleasure at many aspects of his Fleetwood’s performance:
“Nathan and I are delighted with the victory today,” he said.
“Tranmere are a difficult team that are very effective with channel balls and have good midfield runners. We initially struggled with the first and second balls and also with recovery runs.
However, in the second half we nullified their’s strengths by stopping the long balls at the source and we were very good at winning those first and second balls.”
“We managed to score a really good counter attacking goal which is one of the core attributes of the team.”
“Tranmere had a five to ten minute spell of momentum but we turned well and managed to get a goal from it and killed the game.”
Fleetwood: Turner; Kerrigan, Holgate, Baines, Trialist; Unsworth, Collings, Shorrock; Bishop, Garner, Mooney. Subs: Clayton, Dodd, Bridge, Finlayson, McCarragher.