Fleetwood Town’s Development Squad played an almost perfect game in the Central League on Tuesday afternoon as they managed to beat Huddersfield Town B 4-0 at Canalside.
Town’s goals on the day came from forwards Max McMillan and Shayden Morris, who both forged chances throughout the game and each got a brace to show for themselves.
The game started at lightning pace as Town managed to take the lead four minutes into the game as McMillan beat Huddersfield Zak Dearnley to an over-the-top ball from Sam Bird and found the back of the net with his effort.
Two minutes later, the young Cods doubled their lead over the Terriers as Morris used his pace to get into a one-v-one situation with the goalkeeper, before keeping his cool and passing it past him to make it 2-0.
It was almost three just before the 10-minute mark as Fleetwood worked the ball down the wing with McMillan, who netted the opening goal in the tie, but his cross into a dangerous area wasn’t met by anyone in a black shirt.
The home side then started to find their feet in the game soon after as Luke Daley looked to play a cross into the Fleetwood area, but it was easily cleared after good defending from our backline. They tried to attack against three minutes later through Patrick Jones, but his shot was diverted wide.
Fleetwood extended their lead to three after 22 minutes and it was McMillan who found the back of the net, securing his brace in the Central League fixture, as Billy Batch and Chris Conn-Clarke worked well together to put the forward in on goal, where he slotted home.
Another goal came at the half-hour mark, and it was Morris once again at the heart of it. He applied some pivotal pressure on the goalkeeper, and it seemed to pay off as he was able to pounce on a loose ball to extend the Cods’ lead to 4-0 in the first half.
Huddersfield were then forced into a change as Daley had to come off and this spurred a flurry of quickfire attacks starting with David Adewoju, who tried to play a ball forward, but no one was able to get on the end of it.
A couple of minutes later, Jones sprinted to get on the end of another Adewoju ball, but Billy Crellin was there to smother the cross. The Town goalkeeper was called on again soon after, but he was more than a match for Jones’ shot from range.
After the half-time break, Fleetwood carried on the pressure, creating chances through Morris – who was on the hunt for his hat-trick – but a mix of good defending and a couple of saves by Dearnley stop the Cods in their tracks. Akiel Raffie and Conn-Clarke also had efforts on goal in this time, but the goalkeeper was a match for them.
Crellin had to stay active in the latter stages of the game as Huddersfield looked for a consolation goal through substitute Jayden Smith, who latched onto a cross, but the Fleetwood goalkeeper managed to pull off a brilliant save from point-blank range to deny him.
Terriers XI: Dearnley (GK), Peplow (Smith 46’), Daley (Eccleston 31’), Adewoju, Krasniqi (Stone 71’), Camara, Jones (Deru 46’), Iorpenda, Ondo, Midgley, Obiero.
Subs not used: Acquah.
Town XI: Crellin (GK), Bird, Teale, Baker, Batch, Boyle, Baggley, Raffie, Morris, McMillan, Conn-Clarke.
Subs not used: Eastham (GK), Leggett, Smith, Trialist.