Fleetwood Town managed to come away 1-0 winners over Barrow AFC at Holker Street on Tuesday evening.
It took a while for the deadlock to be broken in the pre-season friendly as it took two substitutes to link up. Ellis Harrison played the ball to Dan Batty, 30-yards out, who finessed his shot into the top corner of the host’s goal.
The game's first chance fell to the hosts four minutes in as Jordan Stevens cut in from the right wing and tried his luck from 20-yards, but Jay Lynch easily saved the strike.
Town worked their way into the game after the early shot, with most of the play coming down the left-hand side. Just over 10 minutes in, Chris Conn-Clarke almost played a perfect driven cross to Joe Garner, but Paul Farman did well to get down and stop the attack.
After a quick water break, due to the weather conditions in Barrow, Stevens had another effort – after swapping to the left wing – but it was another easy save for Town’s man between the sticks.
With 32 minutes gone, Cian Hayes found Conn-Clarke on the right-hand side, who dribbled past his man and tried to lob the ball over the rushing Paul Farman, but the effort went just over the crossbar.
Two chances, one for each side, then came in quick-fire fashion First up was Town as Conn-Clarke forced Farman into a save as he looked for J.Garner in the box before Trialist B struck a free kick from 25-yards wide of the target.
In a twist of events, we saw a red card just after the restart as Josh Gordon dove into a tackle with Dylan Boyle dangerously late and caught the young midfielder, meaning the referee had no hesitation to send the Barrow man off.
The second half lacked opportunities as water breaks and substitutions stopped the play on multiple occasions. Most of the play was in the middle of the park until Batty’s unbelievable effort from 30-yards eight minutes from time.
With seconds to go, Max McMillan almost added to his account at Holker Street as Josh Earl, who moved out to the left late on in the game, played a low cross into the striker, but he couldn't quite stretch far enough to get on the end of the cross.
Substitute Ellis Harrison did brilliantly to dribble through two and feed the ball to the midfielder, who set himself before placing his effort from range perfectly into the top corner of Farman’s goal.
Barrow XI: Farman (GK), Canavan (C), Waters, Gordon, White, Neal (Taylor 76’), Foley (Trialist B 10’), Grayson (Trialist C 64’), Warren (Trialist A 76’), Ray (McClelland 76’), Stevens.
Unused subs: Lillis (GK), Gotts.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Johnston, Nsiala (Baker 63’), Earl, Andrew (Bird 70’), Vela (Wiredu 46’), Boyle (White 66’), Baggley (Batty 46’), Hayes (McMillan 70’), J.Garner (Harrison 63’), Conn-Clarke (Lane 46’).
Unused subs: Donaghy (GK).