Fleetwood Town suffered a 2-1 defeat at home to Burton Albion in the First Round of the Emirates FA Cup at Highbury on Saturday afternoon.
An early goal from Joe Garner was soon cancelled out by Burton’s Joe Powell and, with both sides playing through torrential conditions, Dan Jebbison scored a late goal which proved to be the difference between the two sides.
A quiet opening 10 minutes to the game was swiftly changed as Harrison Biggins’ high press led to Callum Morton being played through on goal, but unfortunately, Town’s number nine couldn’t find the far-right corner he was aiming for, and Ben Garratt parried away to safety.
Just minutes later, with the second chance of the game, J.Garner made it 1-0 to the hosts with a simple tap-in after all the hard work was done for him. Some tidy play from Jay Matete sent Shayden Morris on his way down the right flank and after successfully beating his man, he whipped a low-driven cross in which found J.Garner, happy to accept from inside the six-yard box.
It wasn’t long until Burton managed to find the goal to put them back on level terms through Powell. The midfielder received the ball on the edge of the box, picked his spot and despite Alex Cairns’ best efforts, he couldn’t keep out Powell’s effort into the top left corner.
A moment of miscommunication between Danny Andrew and his goalkeeper was nearly costly, but Cairns recovered well as Kane Hemmings tried to take it past him, but fortunately for him and his teammate, he did enough to prevent any major damage.
Morris was proving a real threat down the right-hand side as he had the beating of his man, every time. This time he opted to go for goal, and he nearly received his reward, if not for a strong hand by the Burton keeper.
Garratt decided to have a wander out of his net and was left stranded as Morris was the faster man to the ball, but the Englishman was caught in two minds as to what to do, he decided to try and curl a long-range effort past the keeper, but he curled it a bit too far and it missed the target.
The opening 10 minutes of the second half was very similar to the first 10 of the first half, neither team was able to create anything from the spells of possession they had.
Due to the weather conditions, the match became near unplayable with Fleetwood finding it very tough to create anything of note. The home side had no issue in reaching the 18-yard box, but they then seemed to lack the final ball and they were unable to trouble Garratt.
Morton tried giving his side the lead but unfortunately, his attempted effort on goal was blocked by one of the many Burton bodies, back in the area defending, and the away side cleared.
Burton found themselves in front with just over 10 minutes to go. Once again against Burton, the horrific weather affected the game and made it become scrappier than the home side would have wanted, and the visitors made sure to take advantage through Jebbison. The ball fell to Burton’s #21 just inside the penalty area and it sat up perfectly for the half volley into the bottom left corner.
Despite late changes in an attempt to find an equaliser, Fleetwood couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the back of the net for a second time and as a result, couldn’t keep their FA Cup run alive.
Town XI: Cairns (GK), Andrew, McLaughlin (C.Johnson 75’), Clarke (C), Morton (G.Garner 75’), Camps (Batty 66’), J.Garner (Edmondson 87’), Matete, Morris, Biggins, Lane
Unused Subs: Crellin (GK), Clark, Teale, Johnston, McMillan
Burton XI: Garratt (GK), Borthwick-Jackson, Oshilaja (C), Powell, Hemmings (Amadi-Holloway 84’), Shaughnessy, Jebbison (Patrick 84’), Taylor, Leak, Hamer, Mancienne
Unused Subs: Balcombe (GK), Morris, O’Connor, Blake-Tracy, Maddox, Chapman, Lakin