Fleetwood Town played out a 1-1 draw with fellow Lancashire side Morecambe at the Mazuma Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Town did brilliantly to come back into the game after Arthur Gnahoua opened the scoring in the first half with his strike from the left as Danny Andrew showed his quality as he struck the ball into the top right corner of Morecambe’s goal with his weak foot.
Even though Town created the majority of the chances throughout the fixture, it was the home side who netted the only goal of the game through winger Arthur Gnahoua, who drove down the left before firing past Jay Lynch between the Fleetwood sticks.
It was the hosts who started the game the better side as they managed to create multiple chances in the opening 10 minutes through Jake Taylor, who fired over, and former-Cod Ash Hunter, whose curled effort went high and wide of the target.
However, it didn’t take long for Town to find their feet as the chances started flowing soon after. Ged Garner tried his luck from 20-yards 10 minutes in, which was dragged wide before Dan Batty turned his man well inside the box, but had his effort blocked.
It was all Fleetwood at this point as the side worked corner after corner, with one of them almost resulting in the first goal of the game, as Toto Nsiala rose highest in the box to get on the end of the set-piece but had his effort cleared off the line.
On the half-hour mark, Town should have had a penalty after a blatant handball from Liam Gibson inside the home side’s box. He stopped Harrison Holgate from heading the ball after blocking the ball with his outstretched arm.
After 32 minutes, the deadlock was broken and it was the home side that managed it. A loose pass from Callum Morton was picked off and played out wide to Gnahoua, who showed his pace before firing across Lynch and into the bottom corner.
Town then pressed to level up the scoreline with chances from Josh Earl and Lane being being blocked, but that allowed the hosts to have shots of their own. One of them came from Hunter, who latched onto a poor pass at the back, but saw his shot hit the post.
Lynch had a great end to the half as he managed to pull off a brilliant double save in added time before the break, first denying Gnahoua from the edge of the box and then a diving header from a couple of yards out from Taylor.
It was a good start to the second period for the Cods as multiple chances were created early on as Shaun Rooney fired high and wide after good skill from Lane, before the Northern Irishman had a chance of his own, which also went off target.
With the introduction of both Promise Omochere, who has just returned to the side after an injury – and Joe Garner, the attacks continued to flow with Andrew striking a free-kick on target from 25-yards, but Ripley was there to save the shot.
It was end-to-end from that point on as both sides were able to create meaningful chances. Town’s came from substitute Cian Hayes as his goal bound effort had to be blocked by a sliding Ryan Delaney, with Morcambe’s coming via Dylan Connolly, which was brilliantly stopped by Lynch.
With not long left in the game, it was made level after a brilliant weak-footed strike from Andrew. Inside a clustered home penalty area, the ball seemed to gravitate to the full-back who swung his right boot at the ball, with his effort finding the top right corner.
Morecambe XI: Ripley (GK), Love (C), Melbourne, Gibson (McLoughlin 85’), Rawson, Delaney, Taylor (Bedeau 87’), Fane, Hunter (Watts 85’), Gnahoua (Connolly 77’), Obika.
Unused sub: Smith (GK), Cooney, O’Connor.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Andrew, Wiredu (Omochere 60’), Vela (C), Morton (Hayes 46’), Lane, G.Garner (J.Garner 60’), Nsiala, Batty (Macadam 72’), Rooney (Johnston 72’), Earl.
Unused subs: Cairns (GK), Holgate.
Attendance: 4288 (645 away)