U18's battle to credible draw at Shrewsbury...
Nathan Rooney’s side made the long trip to Shropshire on Saturday and came away with a well-deserved 1-1 draw.
Alex Dodd’s second half equaliser cancelled out a penalty for the hosts, to see the Cod Army youngsters return home with a very credible result.
The first half was a tight affair with both sides having a fair share of the chances, the Fleetwood youngsters defending excellently, whilst also providing the opposing back line with problems regularly.
Despite a positive half time team talk, Fleetwood started slowly and were reprimanded by a controversial penalty decision, allowing the hosts to take a 1-0 lead.
This didn’t sour the efforts of the Fleetwood side however, as they continued to work hard throughout the phase to work their way back into the game.
From the 65th minute onwards, Fleetwood were by far the better team and created many chances over the period and felt unlucky not to be on level terms sooner in the game.
Dodd pounced on a loose ball in the central midfield area before converting into the bottom corner to leave the Shrewsbury keeper hopeless to grab the only goal for the away side.
Rooney was ecstatic to end the first quarter of the season with such a pleasing performance, particularly in the latter stages of the game.
“I truly believe the first part of the season has been a massive learning curve for both the team and staff following a variety of performances and results,” said Rooney.
“I was very pleased with the application and attitude from the entire team today, I felt we defended brilliant and despite going behind, we fought to the very end and could easily have come away with three points.”
FTFC: Crellin; Kerrigan, Sterling, Baines, Abubakar; Shorrock, Dodd, Garner; Collings (Bridge 86), Mooney, Finlayson. Subs (not used): Turner, Unsworth, Holgate.