Fleetwood Town fell to a narrow 3-2 defeat to Burton Albion at Highbury on Saturday afternoon.
A debut goal from Jayden Stockley and an injury-time strike from Promise Omochere wasn’t enough for the Cods on Saturday afternoon as Burton managed to find the back of the net on three occasions, with the last one being seconds before the final whistle.
Town started the game on the front foot as within four minutes, one of the new signings in Jayden Stockley almost broke the deadlock from inside the opposition’s box. Brendan Wiredu picked out the number nine with a cross from the left, but Craig MacGillivray was on hand to make a good save.
Burton had a half chance on the quarter-hour mark and it was an ambitious one at best as the ball fell to the feet of Josh Walker on the edge of the box, and he tried to curl his strike into the bottom left corner, but the shot went well wide of Jay Lynch’s goal.
Stockley and Jack Marriott looked sharp up top together as they kept helping create opportunities for attacks, and one of those came midway through the half when Harvey Macadam cut in from the right and saw his powerful effort, unluckily, blocked by the Burton defence.
Chances were at a premium going into the break with the only clear-cut one coming for Town as Marriott was played in down the left and he seemed to misjudge the bounce on the ball, meaning his strike went high and wide of the target.
It was a quick start to the second half as Josh Vela had a chance near enough straight away; Wiredu played a low cross into the midfielder, whose effort was struck well, but it went wide of the near post.
Burton had two chances soon after which needed dealing with as Mark Helm decided to try his luck from range, with the effort going well over Lynch’s bar, before Walker forced his way through the back line, with his chance going off target from inside the area.
On the hour mark, Town put themselves into the lead and it was a debut goal for Stockley, who latched onto a cross from Marriott and put the ball past MacGillivray, but Burton instantly came back as Oshilaja found the back of the net just 60 seconds later to bring it back to level terms.
Scott Brown’s men could have been back in the lead a minute after that as chances started to come more frequently. Danny Andrew lofted a cross towards Town’s new number nine, who somehow had his header from inside the area saved by the keeper before it was cleared.
After Lynch pulled off a brilliant save to deny Walker, Wiredu played the ball across the face of goal, with everyone in the crowd almost willing someone to get a touch on it, but it wasn’t meant to be as the danger trickled away as Burton got the ball clear of their goal.
Hamer put the visitors ahead with 10 minutes to go and it went from bad to worse for Town as captain Josh Vela saw red after a challenge on Zac Ashworth in the Fleetwood half.
It was heartbreak in the end after Omochere seemed to have come off the bench and salvaged a point with seconds to go, but Charlie Kirk put the ball past Lynch 27 seconds later and secured the win for the Brewers at Highbury.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Andrew, Wiredu, Ndaba, Vela (C), Stockley, Robertson (Mendes Gomes 69’), Marriott (Dolan 76’), Nsiala, Macadam (Omochere 76’), Johnston (Hayes 90+4’).
Unused subs: McMullan (GK), Warrington, Patterson.
Burton XI: MacGillivray (GK), Brayford (C), Oshilaja, Hughes, D.Taylor, Moon, Walker (Kirk 82’), Helm, T.Taylor (McCann 13’), Hames, Ashworth.
Unused subs: Amissah (GK), Winnall, Smith, Shaughnessy, Carayol.
