Fleetwood Town played out a 1-1 draw against Shrewsbury Town at the Montgomery Waters Meadow on Saturday afternoon.
The Cods took the lead after Anthony Pilkington rose highest to get on the end of Callum Johnson’s cross, but a penalty right after the second half started saw the home side pull it back to level terms, with Luke Leahy converting the spot-kick.
Fleetwood created the first chance of the game when Danny Andrew’s corner picked out Pilkington on the edge of the area. His shot was deflected up in the air and met by the head of Toto Nsiala who nodded his effort wide of the post.
Ryan Bowman came close for the hosts when he found space in the area. However, his shot was superbly saved by the right foot of goalkeeper Alex Cairns.
At the other end, Dan Batty picked out the run of Ellis Harrison from a deep position, but his headed effort from within the six-yard box could only find the gloves of Marko Marosi.
Town took the lead just over 20 minutes into the game. It was another ball into the area, this time by Johnson from the right flank. His looping cross found the run of Pilkington who nodded home from the penalty spot.
It almost broke for Andrew when he powered his way through a crowd of Shrewsbury players into the box, with the ball still stuck to his feet. However, it was a little too much and the Fleetwood captain’s effort was deflected into the hands of the goalkeeper.
Andrew was at the heart of the action once again when his low cross caused confusion amongst the Shrewsbury backline. Defender Matthew Pennington’s miscued clearance almost ended up in his own goal, but Marosi was down quickly to make the save.
Two minutes after the restart, the hosts were awarded a penalty after Zak Jules committed a foul in the penalty area. Leahy stepped up and converted the spot-kick.
Pilkington came close when he let one fly from the edge of the box. His shot across goal looked threatening but flew just wide of the post.
In the 69th minute, Callum Camps’ tried his luck from 30-yards. His optimistic free-kick was on-target and forced Marosi into a save.
Elliot Bennett’s curling free-kick called Cairns into action with 10 minutes to go. The resulting corner saw Fleetwood’s stopper pull off an even finer save - leaping to his right to deny a close-range header before Harrison cleared.
Butterworth almost found a way through in the closing minutes of the game when he curled one towards goal from 20-yards. He saw his effort tipped over the bar.
With 89 minutes on the clock, the Shrews looked like they were going to snatch all three points, but a combination of onrushing Fleetwood defenders saw the ball cleared off the line.
The match came to a controversial conclusion when the referee dismissed Callum Camps.
Fleetwood XI: Cairns (GK), Andrew (C), Jules, Clarke, Harrison, Camps, Pilkington (Morris 76’), Batty (Biggins 90’), C.Johnson, Lane, Nsiala (Butterworth 60’).
Unused subs: O'Hara (GK), Johnston, Hayes, Macadam.
Shrewsbury XI: Marosi (GK), Leahy, Ebanks-Landell (C), Pennington, Fornah (Janneh 46’), Vela, Udoh, Bowman, Davis, Bennett, Nurse.
Unused subs: Burgoyne (GK), Pierre, Bondswell, Bloxham, Daniels, Flanagan.