Fleetwood Town battled valiantly in their second pre-season friendly out in Ireland, but fell to a narrow 2-1 loss to Dundee FC at the RSC on Saturday afternoon.
It was another good pre-season run-out for the Cods out in Ireland as the players worked more minutes into their legs whilst competing throughout the well-contested battle in Waterford.
Dundee opened the scoring midway through the first half through Zach Robinson, but Town got it back to level terms soon after when Jack Marriott nodded past the keeper from close range.
The game looked set to be a one-all draw, but Luke McCowan latched onto a loose pass in the midfield and lobbed the substitute goalkeeper Stephen McMullan from just inside the Town half to earn the Dees the win.
The first chance of the game fell to the side from Scotland as a low cross was played into a packed box and Jay Lynch had to be called into action to deny Robinson from five yards before having to collect the follow-up effort.
Town reacted to this early chance well as they worked one of their own around the quarter-hour mark as Kyle White tricked his way past his marker and won a free-kick just outside the Dundee area - Phoenix Patterson stepped up to take it and forced Jon McCracken into a save.
More positive play from Fleetwood followed with half-chances being created by Patterson and Promise Omochere, but it was Dundee who opened the scoring 26 minutes in as Zak Rudden played Robinson in, who slotted the ball into the bottom left corner to make it 1-0.
One last effort for the half then fell for Fleetwood with not long to go until the break as Patterson played a deep corner into the box where Connor Teale nodded the ball towards goal, and Marriott was on hand to guide the initial effort past the keeper to level up the score.
As it was with the Waterford FC game on Tuesday evening, a new line-up was introduced on the hour mark – nine changes in total – with the only chance between then and the half-time break being a half-one for Dundee as Josh Mulligan couldn’t get a clean connection on Rudden’s ball in.
Chances were few and far between after the changes were made with two stand-out ones coming to mind for Town. The first was Kyle White’s low-driven effort from the edge of the box, which needed to be saved, and the second was Maleace Asamoah’s acrobatic strike that went over the bar.
A mistake in the middle was the reason Dundee were able to retake the lead with seven minutes to go as McCowan picked up a loose ball just inside the Town half and then tried an audacious lob, looking to beat Stephen McMullan between the sticks, and he managed to do so, making it 2-1.
Town XI: Lynch (GK) (McMullan 60’), Teale, Nsiala (Holgate 60’), Wiredu (Earl 60’), Montgomery (Trialist 60’), Mayor (Robertson 60’), Vela (Wilson 60’), White, Omochere (Asamoah 60’), Marriott (Stockley 60’), Patterson (Hayes 60’).