Fleetwood Town played out a 1-1 draw with Forest Green Rovers in Sky Bet League One on Tuesday evening.
Rovers took the lead early in the first half as full-back Corey O’Keeffe whipped in a free-kick from the right into a packed box, where Harvey Bunker nodded past Jay Lynch at his near post. Town then came back into it in the second half as Callum Morton converted Shaun Rooney’s cross.
The first chance of the game came in the fourth minute as Forest Green Worked their way down the right with O’Keeffe, who lofted a cross into a packed Town box and found the head of Bryan Fiabema, but his header was headed off the line by Harrison Holgate.
Fleetwood had an effort of their own 10 minutes later as Rooney picked up the ball in his own half before driving forward and picking our Callum Morton. He tried his luck by attempting to place the ball past Lewis Thomas, but the ‘keeper got down well to push it just wide of his post.
Just after the quarter-hour mark, Forest Green were in once again as Regan Hendry lined up his sights from the edge of the box and Drew Baker slid and got in the way of that one, with the ball then bouncing to Connor Wickham, whose shot went just wide of Lynch’s goal.
The lead should have been Fleetwood’s just after that as Morton took down a lofted cross brilliantly with his chest and volleyed it towards the goal, with the effort crashing against the post. It was action-packed around the half-hour mark as Joe Garner saw his header from a corner go just wide.
Forest Green then took the lead as Bunker latched onto O’Keeffe’s free-kick which was played into a dangerous area – the centre-half nodded the ball past Lynch to put his side into the lead.
Luck wasn’t on the side of Scott Brown’s team as Carlos Mendes Gomes had his shot from close range stopped by Thomas, Cian Hayes’ effort where he tried to place the ball into the goal was blocked on the line, and Town’s number had another shot saved after lining one up from the edge.
The attacking pressure continued into the second half as a couple more chances were worked by the Cods. First was a header from J.Garner, from Danny Andrew’s cross, which went just wide, and the second was Drew Baker latching onto Rooney’s cross but nodding the ball off target.
It all paid off as, after a flurry of substitutes for both sides, Rooney drove down the wing and played a low cross into the centre, where Morton was standing, and he decided to go with a tricky strike to pull off as he backheeled the ball into the back of the net, making it 1-1 with 20 minutes to go.
Town looked for a winner through J.Garner as Andrew whipped a cross in for him to attack, and that he did, but his effort was off target. This left gaps though as Forest Green also wanted to find the winner – substitute Armani Little thought he’d done that when had a chance from inside the six-yard box but, again, the shot went wide of Lynch’s far post.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Mendes Gomes (Batty 89’), Vela (C), Morton, J.Garner, Warrington (Lane 67’), Holgate, Hayes (Andrew 46’), Rooney, Earl, Baker.
Unused subs: Stolarczyk (GK), Wiredu, Johnston, McMillan.
Forest Green XI: Thomas (GK), O’Keeffe, Cargill (C), Stevenson (Matt 90’), Hendry, Boyes, Fiabema (March 67’), Wickham, Marques, Peart-Harris (Little 75’), Bunker (Bernard 67’).
Unused subs: McGee (GK), Casey, McAllister.