Fleetwood Town secured a good point on the road on Saturday afternoon as they kept a clean sheet against top of the league Plymouth Argyle at Home Park.
In a game that saw both sides create gilt-edged chances, it was destiny that it would end goalless. Substitute Niall Ennis will be ruing his missed opportunity in the second half, and the same goes for Jack Marriott as his effort on the hour mark flew past the near post.
It was a quick start to the game as the Cods had two attempts to break the deadlock within the first 10 minutes. The first game was from a Scott Robertson corner as he found Shaun Rooney, but had his shot blocked, and then Marriott worked a yard of space before firing into a crowd of defenders.
Soon after, the hosts had a chance of their own as Nigel Lonwijk played through Ryan Hardie and after he cut back on himself to work an angle on goal, he fired his shot just wide of Jay Lynch’s near post.
The Cods had unfortunate news after this as Robertson had to leave the field due to an injury and this seemed to spur the hosts on as Brendan Wiredu had to pull off a brilliant last-ditch challenge to stop their counter-attack through Callum Wright.
Before the break, Town did create a couple more opportunities as Josh Vela tried his luck with a 25-yard volley after Mendes Gomes’ corner was cleared 25 minutes in, but that went well over the bar. Marriott then looked to be in, but Callum Burton did well to come out and smother the ball and stop the forward from striking the ball towards his goal.
It was brilliant defending from Wiredu in added time ahead of the end of the half as Macauley Gillesphey found Tyreik Wright on the left, who played a low-cross in towards Finn Azaz, and it was Town’s number four who threw himself in the way to block his effort from close range.
Scott Brown would have been happy with how his side started the second half as they were on the front foot until the hour mark with Mendes Gomes firing on goal from range, then Wiredu heading a corner towards goal and another chance from Town’s number seven all coming in quick succession.
A gilt-edged showed itself 60 minutes in and fell for Marriott as a long ball over the top was brought down well by the Fleetwood forward and he then lined up a powerful effort looking to trouble Burton between the Plymouth sticks, but the chance went amiss as it flew past the near post.
It was a brilliant chance to take the lead for the Cods in the 79th minute as substitute Cian Hayes brought the ball down the right and teed up captain Josh Vela on his return to the side, but it wasn’t the strike he would have dreamed of as the left-footed effort went wide of the mark.
Straight down the other end, the hosts thought they had done enough to beat Lynch and open the scoring as substitute Sam Cosgrove played a low cross into the feet of fellow sub-Ennis who strikes the ball just wide of the near post.
As it happened in the first half, the hosts piled the pressure on at the end of the game as Bali Mumba struck the ball towards goal and forced Lynch into a save at full-stretch before Matt Butcher curled a shot looking for the top-left, which went high and wide of the mark.
Argyle XI: Burton (GK), Gillesphey, Houghton (Butcher 80'), Wilson, Edwards (C) (Ennis 70’), Hardie (Mumba 70’), Azaz (Miller 58'), Lonwijk, C.Wright, Matete, T.Wright (Cosgrove 58').
Unused subs: Parkes (GK), Bolton.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Wiredu, Mendes Gomes (Hayes 66’), Vela (C), Stockley, Robertson (Macadam 21’), Marriott (Stockley 66’), Warrington, Holgate, Nsiala, Rooney.
Unused subs: McMullan (GK), Johnson, Dolan, Patterson.