Fleetwood Town secured their spot in the Third Round of the Emirates FA Cup on Sunday afternoon as they beat Ebbsfleet United 1-0 at the Kuflink Stadium.
In a game of few chances, it was Town that came out on top as a swift counter attack midway through the second half saw Ged Garner drive into acres of space before picking out the bottom right corner, scoring the only goal of the tie.
The first chance of the game fell to Fleetwood just five minutes into the clash as good play down the left wing saw a through ball being played to the feet of G.Garner, who composed himself before powering his strike on goal, which hit the near post.
Other than that early chance, it was a slow start in terms of efforts on goal as most of the play was in the middle of the park. In that time though, Josh Vela almost caught keeper Mark Cousins out as he nicked the ball off him but couldn’t quite forge a chance from the challenge.
A big chance opened up for the home side just before the half-hour mark as Dom Poleon found a gap between the Town backline and keeper and looked to pass the ball into the net, but he lost his footing, meaning the shot went wide of the near post.
Soon after, Poleon was on the front foot again as he received the ball inside the Town area and set his sights on the near post, but Stolarczyk did well to come out quickly and stop the chance by diving low and collecting.
Town had the last chance of the half five minutes from time as Brendan Wiredu managed to pick out the feet of Dan Batty inside the home area, who struck the ball first time towards the goal, but Christian N’Guessan was there to block the effort and defend his goal.
The second half was a non-starter until the 57th minute when Rooney picked out Josh Vela with a cross from the right, but the latter’s effort went just wide of the near post. Then, Ebbsfleet went down the other end and Rakish Bingham forced Stolarczyk into an easy save.
Fleetwood broke the deadlock with the next attack of the game, which was started by Lewis Warrington winning the ball back in the middle of the park, before setting G.Garner off on the counter. He stormed forwards and drilled his effort into the bottom right, past Cousins.
With 20 minutes to go, Ebbsfleet looked to try and get back on level terms through Bingham, who controlled the ball on the edge of the box and curled his effort towards the far corner, but Town’s number one was there to comfortably collect.
They almost found that all-important goal with seconds to go as Greg Cundle picked out Franklin Domi six-yards out, who struck the ball cleanly towards goal, but heroics from Earl meant the ball stayed out of the next and Town walked away with a spot in the Third Round of the cup
Fleet XI: Cousins (GK), O’Neill (Jombati 89'), Sterling-James (Monlouis 77’), N’Guessan (McQueen 77’), Bingham, Tanner, Poleon, Cundle, Edser (Domi 89'), Solly (Martin 53’), Hollis.
Unused subs: Haigh (GK), Romain, Paxman, Chapman.
Town XI: Stolarczyk (GK), Andrew (Omochere 46’), Wiredu (Baker 87’), Vela (C), Morton (Hayes 79’), Warrington, Holgate, G.Garner, Batty (Lane 79’), Rooney (Johnston 74’), Earl.
Unused subs: Lynch (GK), J.Garner.