A young Fleetwood Town side fell to a 4-1 defeat against Tranmere Rovers on Saturday afternoon at The Campus.
Town started the game well as Maleace Asamoah and Cian Hayes linked up in the first five minutes of the game, with the latter firing just over before Junior Quitirna forced a diving save Luke McGee from his powerful effort.
The game then flipped on its head as a quickfire Josh Hawkes brace put the hosts in the lead early on in the clash. His first goal came from a move, which saw him cut in from the left and fire home, and the second was a close range header.
Tom Davies soon added a third, but Fleetwood weren’t down and out yet as the Cods were still creating quite a few chances.
New signing Ryan Graydon thought he’d reduced the deficit down to two around the half hour mark as he carried the ball around the keeper, but fired just wide of the far post.
Less than 10 minutes later, Town did find themselves on the score sheet as a low-driven cross made its way to Cian Hayes at the back post, after a deflection, with the winger firing home with confidence to bring the score back to 3-1.
More examples of good attacking play from Scott Brown’s side followed this as Graydon, forced a save out from the keeper ahead of the break before Quitirna fired a free-kick over the bar from 25 yards.
It should have been two goals for Town in the 54th minute as Hayes brought down a cross-field ball well, then took on three defenders before striking an effort on target, only for substitute Keeper Murphy to be a match for it.
Late on, Jayden Stockley saw his close range header stopped and substitute Pharrell Brown forced a near post save, but it was the hosts who managed to add to their tally as an own goal put the game out of sight, meaning the game would end in a 4-1 loss.
Town XI: McMullan (GK), Holgate, Johnston, Teale, Asamoah, White, Wilson (Morrison 46’), Hayes, Quitirna, Graydon, Stockley (Brown 76’).