Fleetwood Town’s Development Squad lost 3-2 to Evo-Stik Premier side Workington on Tuesday night in their second pre-season friendly ahead of the new campaign.
It was a bright start for the Cod Army after Dan Mooney opened the scoring for Simon Wiles' side.
However, goals from Matty Douglas, Kieran Maguire and Conor Tinnon proved to be too much to come back from. The lively Shaydon Morris climbed off the bench in the second half and grabbed a deserved goal, but it was the Cumbrians who won the game.
Nadesan, Matt Urwin, Gerard Garner, Harrison Holgate and Lewis Baines – all of which were on the first team’s pre-season training camp in Hungary last week – started against The Reds on a sunny evening in Workington.
Mooney got Town off to the best possible start inside five minutes. He worked the offside trap well from Ashley Nadesan's through ball, and calmly slotted the ball past the goalkeeper Aaran Taylor in the sixth minute.
The Wales U19 international nearly had his and Town's second goal of the game, however he was denied by two fantastic saves from Taylor. The first looked destined for the far post and after the parry fell back to the Mooney, when he then again saw his powerful effort saved.
The home team pressed and pressed to get back into the game, and had a number of great chances coming from set-pieces. After four free-kicks from Tinnion, his next delivery found Douglas at the near post – who then headed the ball home from close range.
Moments later, Workington took the lead through Maguire. His initial strike was saved by Urwin, and saw the ball fall nicely for him second time around and couldn't miss from five yards out.
A quarter of the way into the match, Workington made it 3-1 after with Maguire – who scored the second goal – squared the ball to Tinnion, who took one touch inside the box before firing across goal, and seeing his effort find the bottom corner of the goal.
Workington continued to press into the second half and it was Maguire who had the first attempt at goal, and this time his right footed power drive was blocked on the line by Town defender Baines. Fantastic commitment from the youngster.
Ryan Rydel followed in Baines' footsteps only moments later. Substitute David Renyard worked the ball well in the 18-yard box and after going around Urwin, he thought he had scored but once again the ball was cleared off the line and punted out of play.
Tinnion was the man for the home side making the game tick, and after weaving his way through two Town defenders, he thought he'd go for goal and what a goal it would have been, but with the ball moving, it was narrowly off target.
Town made a number of changes with twenty minutes remaining and it gave the Cod Army more pace to get at the back four of Workington. Substitute Morris capitalised on a badly weighted pass and after running 30 yards to go, the wide-man had the composure to place the ball under Casson, and see it go over the line. Game on.
Sam O'Halloran, who replaced Nadesan went inches away from levelling the scoreline right before the full-time whistle. Morris danced around the full-back, who then floated the ball into the box for Hill, but the striker couldn't direct his header on goal.
Workington XI: Taylor (GK) (Casson 69'), Douglas (Pearson 67'), Rowntree (C) (Pattinson 57'), Smith, Tidy (Hetherington 65'), Hubbold, Bradbury, Cowperthwaite, Walker, Maguire, Tinnion (O'Brien 67')
Subs not used: Harker, Mossof, Holliday.
Fleetwood XI: Urwin (GK/C), Holgate (Cooke 70'), Rydel, Boyle, Hill, Baines, Djabi (O'Halloran 65'), Garner (Matete 70'), Nadesan (Morris 65'), Donohue (Steer 70'), Mooney (Johnston 70')
Subs not used: Trialist
Attendance: 180
Picture: Ben Challis (Workington AFC)