Fleetwood Town had their first run-out of the summer this afternoon as they narrowly lost to Premier League side Burnley 3-2 at Barnfield Training Centre.
The first half saw multiple chances fall to the Cods with the first one seeing Cian Hayes turn his man on the left and lofted a cross into the box for Jayden Stockley who, unfortunately, headed wide of the mark just after the hosts opened the scoring early on.
Around the half hour mark, Town had two more chances as Jack Marriott worked a yard on the edge of the Burnley area and forced a save with his powerful effort minutes before Promise Omochere played the number 14 in on goal, but his header went just off target.
It was a quickfire start to the second half as Burnley found the back of the net for the second time 52 minutes in as they nodded a corner into the near post, but Fleetwood powered back as Patterson had his shot blocked a minute later and, after winning the ball back, he crossed in to Junior Quitirna, whose header was cleverly saved.
The lead was halved seconds later as Patterson played the ball into the trialist who decided to try his luck with his right foot 20-yards out and his effort curled past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net making the score 2-1 ahead of the hour mark.
Another setback came with 25 minutes to go as Burnley restored their two-goal lead, but it was dominant football from the Cods from this point on as Josh Vela had his effort blocked after nicking a loose ball just outside the box, before the score was back to within one in the 85th minute.
New signing Ryan Broom picked up the ball on the right and whipped in a cross where Patterson had cut in from the opposite wing and calmly nodded home from 12 yards making it a nervy end for the home side, but a comeback wasn’t quite on the cards for Scott Brown’s side on their first outing of pre-season.
First XI: Lynch (GK), Teale, Nsiala, Earl, J.Edwards, Wilson, Robertson, Omochere, Stockley, Hayes (Quitirna 30’), Marriott).
Second XI: McMullan (GK), Rooney, Wiredu (Quitirna 60’), Holgate, Johnston, Broom, Vela, Mayor, Asamoah, Trialist, Patterson.