Fleetwood Town 2-1 Shrewsbury Town
Substitutes Ash Hunter and Bobby Grant both came off the bench to score as Fleetwood Town came from behind to beat Shrewsbury Town 2-1 at Highbury, under the watchful eye of new manager Steven Pressley.Against the run of play, it was the visitors who took the lead.
Former Town midfielder Junior Brown picked up on a wayward pass in on the halfway line before picking out Chris Maxwell’s top corner with 25 minutes played.
Hunter scored Fleetwood’s deserved leveller in the 69th minute, latching onto a weak back-pass by Jermaine Grandison before keeping his cool and beating Jayson Leutwiler in the Shrews’ goal.
In added time, fellow sub Grant a former Shrewsbury player, made it three goals in four outings by finding the top corner from 18 yards, giving Town a winner and passage into the regional quarter-final.
Caretaker manager Chris Lucketti made no fewer than five changes ahead of the game bringing in Tyler Forbes, Nick Haughton, Antoni Sarcevic, Jamille Matt and Jamie Proctor.
Prior to going behind Town had had the better of the chances with Sarcevic and Jimmy Ryan both seeing efforts beaten away by Shrews goalkeeper Leutwiler.
Ten minutes before the break ex-Fleetwood manager Micky Mellon nearly saw his Shrewsbury side double their account.
Another Cod Army connection amongst the Shrews, former loanee, Liam McAlinden went down the left and found Tyrone Barnett who saw his mistimed finish bobbled wide before McAlinden went wide moments later.
In the dying moments of the first half, Sarcevic playing from a wide left posting popped up on the right, beat two players before dragging a left foot effort narrowly wide.
After the interval, Shrewsbury had the first chance, Mat Sadler heading over from a Jordan Clark corner before Amari’i Bell fizzed a low drive across the face of goal which was put behind for a corner.
From the resulting set-piece Dionatan Teixeira flicked on into the path of Proctor with Leutwiler again in the way.
With pressure building Forbes even tried his luck, cutting in from the right and hitting the ball left-footed from range with the ball whistling over.
Past the hour mark and it was still Town asking all the questions.
First Proctor headed against the bar after Sarcevic had done well to get to the byline before picking out the former Crawley forward at the back post before Haughton tested Leutwiler from range.
With 21 minutes to play Leutwiler was finally beaten as Hunter on in place of Matt, seized on Grandison’s mistake by racing through on goal and slotting it calmly past the shot-stopper.
Having scored one Hunter seemed in the mood for more goals heading a Bell cross narrowly wide as the full-time whistle drew nearer.
With penalties on the horizon, Haughton sent Proctor down the line who in turn pulled it back to Sarcevic but his effort was beaten away by the Swiss in Shrewsbury’s net.
In the final minute Hunter broke the offside trap before hitting the foot of the post before laying it off moments later for Grant to pick out the top corner and send Highbury into raptures.