Fleetwood Town won their pre-season friendly against Stockport County on Saturday afternoon, as they walked away 2-0 winners.
Midfielder Josh Morris finished off a brilliant team move to open the scoring 16 minutes into the game, before Wes Burns was brought down in the box, earning Town a penalty – which was converted by Paddy Madden.
The first chance of the game fell to the hosts just two minutes into the game as Richard Bennett was played in from the left wing but he was off-balance taking the shot, meaning it went high and wide of the goal.
Fleetwood grew into the game and started to dominate play. In the 11th minute, Madden bundled past the Stockport defence and was one-on-one with Ben Hinchcliffe, but his effort was straight at the keeper.
Just a few minutes later, the Cod Army produced some brilliant interplay in the middle of the park as Madden passed the ball to Ched Evans, he played in Morris who calmly slotted the ball past the rushing goalkeeper to give his side the lead.
With less than ten minutes to go in the first half, Danny Andrew received the ball on the left and swung the ball in towards Burns, but he was bundled to the ground by Mark Kitching – who got a yellow card for the challenge.
Fleetwood’s Madden stepped up to take the penalty and confidently struck the ball down the middle, extending Town’s lead to two.
Just before the half, Fleetwood could have made it three as Burns drilled a low cross in from the right, which was fumbled by Hinchcliffe and even though Callum Camps got on the end of it, his strike hit the bar from just five yards out.
Ten minutes into the second half, Stockport had a rare attack as Nyal Bell composed himself before trying his luck from range, but the shot was easily saved by the Fleetwood goalkeeper.
The Cod Army got back on the ball and, on the hour mark, forced another attack as a trialist kept the ball into play before crossing it into the box. It was cleared, only as far as Burns on the edge of the box, but he struck the ball over the bar.
After a cluster of changes, youngster Carl Johnston received the ball on the edge of the box and tried his luck, with his shot going just wide of the far post.
Fleetwood carried on the pressure and managed another couple of quickfire shots. The first being a 30-yard strike from Ryan Rydel, which went just wide, before Shayden Morris dribbled past two players and forced a good save from the keeper.
The final chance of the game was another Fleetwood one as substitute Harvey Saunders chased down a loose back pass to the goalkeeper and almost deflected the clearance into the Stockport net. After chasing thew ball down, he was unlucky not to convert the half-chance.
Everyone at Fleetwood Town would like to thank Stockport County for their hospitality and want to wish them the best of luck for the upcoming season.
Fleetwood XI: Trialist (GK), Trialist, Andrew, Boyes, Holgate, Burns, Evans, Camps, J.Morris, Coutts, Madden.
Fleetwood bench: Trialist (GK), Sowerby, Biggins, Hill, Baggley, Johnston, Matete, Rydel, Saunders, S.Morris.
Stockport XI: Hinchcliffe (GK), Minihan, Kitching, Hogan, Palmer, Stott, C.Jennings, Maynard, Bennett, Rooney, Reid.
Stockport bench: J.Jennings, Trialist, Keane, Downing, Thomas, Coleman, Turnbull, Walker, Stephenson, Bell, Curran.