Craig Madden's side beaten by Dale
Fleetwood Town's youth side slipped to defeat against Rochdale at Lytham on Saturday morning.Three goals in the first 21 minutes from James Hooper, Callum Schorah and Dominic Reid sent the visitors on their way, before a well-taken finish from Nyal Bell midway through the second half wrapped up the win for Dale.
The game started off fairly evenly, with both sides trying to dictate the play in the opening exchanges, however neither could force a breakthrough with Town doing the early pressing.
Rochdale created the first real chance of the encounter in the eighth minute though, and took the lead thanks to a stunning long range effort from Hooper.
Hooper received the ball before cutting inside, taking a touch and curling a left-footed effort into the top right-hand corner past the dive of Elliot Wynne.
Fleetwood responded well to going a goal down; striker Jonny Foursman was unfortunate not to get the Cod Army level as he saw his effort smothered by Dale keeper Rhys Lovett.
But three minutes later, Craig Madden’s side were two down as Rochdale doubled their advantage through Schorah on the quarter hour mark.
An unfortunate slip by Danny Vile lead to Reid powering his way into the penalty area and squaring the ball to Schorah, who coolly tapped his right-footed shot into the bottom left-hand corner.
The Cod Army huffed and puffed to find a goal themselves, however resilient defending from the visitors restricted Fleetwood to half chances.
At the other end, Rochdale found a third with 21 minutes on the clock, as Reid ran through on goal to add another to the scoreline.
Despite the deficit, Madden's side still battled, and Foursman went close once again as his rasping strike deflected towards goal but was hacked off the line.
As the second half commenced, midfielder Conor Smith fizzed his long range effort wide of the far post having been assisted by Shane Glean.
Rochdale looked to add another as the half progressed but some last gasp Fleetwood defending thwarted Reid's goal-bound attempt.
However, Dale would not be deterred a fourth, with Bell netting a well-taken goal in the 64th minute to all but seal the win.
Some neat build up play led to the ball being cut back to Bell, who drilled the ball home beyond the dive of Wynne.
With the game entering the final stages, Madden brought on Jack Finlayson and Jack O'Leary, both of whom were making their youth team débuts in the place of Foursman and Djabi.
The Cod Amy searched for a consolation, however they were unable to find one, being reduced to half chances in the dying embers of the game.
Teams:
Fleetwood: Wynne, Nelson, Vile, Smith, Muscat, Gregory, Glean, Tetteh, Foursman (O'Leary, 70) Djabi (Finlayson, 70) Hancox.
Rochdale: Lovett, Akinwaze-Samles, Schorah, Kisimba, Sinclair, Coyne, Hasler-Gregg, Cowan-Thompson, Bell, Reid, Hooper.