Fleetwood Town fell to a 2-0 defeat away from home against Bolton Wanderers in their final away clash of the season on Saturday afternoon.
A first-half goal, courtesy of an Elias Kachunga header from a corner kick, saw the hosts take the lead into the break and, after a red card was shown to Jayden Stockley 60 minutes in, the ball fell kindly to former-Cod Kyle Dempsey in the box to double the Trotters’ lead with 13 minutes to go.
Town looked comfortable in the opening 15 minutes of the game in Greater Manchester as they created a few half-chances to start the game off. The first shot came from Jayden Stockley, which was collected easily by James Trafford before Jack Marriott saw his effort be blocked in the box.
But it would be the hosts who would take the lead as Kachunga would get on the end of a corner kick and slot the ball past Jay Lynch with their first shot of the game. The Cods almost found an instant reply 60 seconds later but Promise Omochere’s header went just over the home side’s crossbar.
For Scott Brown’s men, the search was on for the equaliser as a corner kick straight from the training ground found its way to Marriott on the edge of the box, whose shot was blocked and deflected towards Shaun Rooney, who saw the same result soon after.
More chances would come just before the break for Town as Rooney looked to play a cross into the box for Stockley, but the delivery was just behind the frontman, which eased the danger. Two minutes later, Marriott tried his luck with a first-time effort, but it was saved well by Trafford.
With seconds left in the first period, both sides had one last effort on goal as Marriott, unluckily slipped on the wet surface as he looked to pounce on a Patterson cross, and Dion Charles headed Gethin Jones’ cross high and wide before the referee’s whistle blew.
The second half was a feisty affair with the first chance coming soon after the restart as Toto Nsiala rose highest to get on the end of Patterson’s corner, heading on target and forcing Trafford into a smart save. Jones then started a counter, but Charles couldn’t get on the end of his cross.
A major event in the second half was Stockley being shown a red card on the hour mark, it seemed to be MJ Williams who started the encounter, running into the back of the forward, but the card was shown to Fleetwood’s number nine anyway.
This put Town on the back foot for the final 30 minutes and Bolton almost capitalised on it as Kachunga slid the ball across the face of goal for Charles to tap home, but the linesman rightfully deemed the ball to have gone out of play before the shot took place.
The game was put to bed in what was quite a lucky fashion as Jay Lynch pulled off a brilliant save to stop dangerous Randell Williams cross, but it ricocheted straight into the path of Dempsey who tapped home into an open net from close range, meaning the game would end 2-0 to the hosts.
Bolton XI: Trafford (GK), Jones (C), M.Williams (Thomason 71’), G.Johnston, Charles (Adeboyejo 80’), Toal, Lee (Morley 71’), Bradley, Dempsey, Kachunga (Nlundulu 88’), R.Williams.
Unused subs: John, Sheehan, Jerome.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Wiredu, Vela (C), Stockley, Marriott (Hayes 85’), Warrington (White 85’), Omochere, Nsiala, Patterson (Mendes Gomes 65’), Rooney, Johnston.
Unused subs: McMullan (GK), Quitirna, Holgate, W.Johnson.