Fleetwood Town 0-2 Coventry City
Fleetwood Town slipped to a late 2-0 defeat at home to Coventry City on a bitterly cold evening at Highbury Stadium.City snatched two late goals in the closing stages courtesy of Dominic Samuel and Frank Nouble which earned them all three points.
Graham Alexander made just the one change to Town’s starting line-up, with Liam McAlinden replacing the injured Nick Haughton.
It would be Fleetwood who muster up the first chance of the game, with Jamie Proctor finding space from 25 yards but his shot went over the bar.
Coventry’s first real opening came three minutes later when Samuel’s header found its way to Adam Barton, but the former Cod Army loanee couldn’t control the ball when it fell to him.
Samuel was lively and later saw his long range effort fly over the bar as Coventry began to grow into the game.
Chris Maxwell was forced into action on the half hour mark, as he tipped Samuel’s fierce drive over the bar from distance.
Morris was next to try his luck from a similar distance, but saw his driven effort go narrowly over the bar.
As the half entered the final ten minutes, Fleetwood were denied an opening goal when Chris Stokes cleared Jamie Proctor header off the line.
Both sides had early opportunities in the second half, with Liam McAlinden seeing a header saved by Burge, while Nnouble curled an effort inches wide.
On the hour-mark, the Cod Army had a glorious chance to take the lead when a ball was pumped up to Gareth Evans, but the attacker couldn’t capitalise and the chance went begging.
Midfielder John Fleck forced Maxwell into a low stop, while the Welshman had to be on hand again to keep out Stokes’ 30 yard strike.
Stokes was at it again as he rose tallest from the resulting corner to crash his header against the crossbar.
Town hearts were broken in the 88th minute when Samuel raced through clear on goal to slot beyond Maxwell.
The visitors would add a second in added time as Nouble tapped home into an empty net after the ball had ricocheted off Maxwell.