Fleetwood Town’s Under-18s carried on their recent run of form at the weekend as they came out on top in a five-goal thriller against Oldham Athletic, which finished 3-2 at Chapel Road.
It was a brilliant start to the game for Mark Yeates’ side as Tom Hoyle managed to capitalise on a poorly cleared ball as he drove forwards, linking up with Pharrell Brown, to pass off to Liam Roberts on the wing. He then played a dangerous in-swinging cross towards the back post, where Dom Richmond was able to nod home and make it 1-0 just 15 minutes in.
The Under-18s were penned back to 1-1 not long after the second-half restart but found themselves in the lead once again in the 72nd minute as substitutes Josh Kearns and Raff Cirino linked up inside the oppositions half, with the latter playing a cross into the box, which flew straight into the goal, even though Mikey Lane was there for any second balls.
It was a back-and-forth game throughout as Oldham pulled it back to level terms not long before the end, but that wasn’t the end of the story for the young Cods. Another poor clearance from the hosts meant George Morrison could nod the ball back towards them and start a counter, with Zane Marsh picking out Brown inside the area who calmly slotted home to make the score 3-2.
With that performance and a last-minute goal to add, the Under-18s are now unbeaten in two and still have an outside chance of claiming the Youth Alliance title from Blackpool as they are level on points, but have played three more games. Up next for Yeates’ men is a home fixture against Preston North End at Poolfoot Farm on Saturday 8 April (10:30am kick-off).
Town XI: Trialist (GK), Khela (Cirino 68’), Hoyle, Hughes, Jones, Morrison, Namputu (Kearns 68’), Brown, Richmond (Daha 70’), Lane, Roberts (Marsh 60’).