Fleetwood Town’s Under-21s advanced to the knockout stages of the Premier League Cup on Tuesday evening after beating Huddersfield Town 4-2 at Clitheroe’s EcoGiants Stadium.
It was a brilliant performance from our Young Cods, which started with them taking the lead 24 minutes into the clash as Pharrell Brown played in a corner to the head of Nathan Pond, who knocked the ball down to Sam Fishburn and the forward made no error from close range, making it 1-0 on the night.
Town managed to double their lead early in the second half through Maleace Asamoah, who scored two during the game, with Will Johnson creating the first as he played a perfect through ball over the top to the winger. He then rounded the goalkeeper and slotted home into an empty net from the edge, making it a bit more comfortable.
Matt Lawlor’s side had a setback on the hour mark as Harry Wright was on the wrong end of a tackle inside the Fleetwood box, meaning Huddersfield would have a penalty, and a chance to halve the deficit, which they did as Cian Philpott sent goalkeeper Tom Donaghy the wrong way, making it 2-1 with 30 minutes to go.
The two-goal lead was re-instated 10 minutes later though with Asamoah netting his second of the night, with Fishburn this time playing the role of assistor as he held up the ball well in the box after a cross before laying it off to the number seven, who passed it into the back of the net from just six-yards.
Even though the Tykes did pull another one back through Danny Isaac, the win which was needed to progress through to the knockout stages was confirmed, as Theo Williams came off the bench late on to score the fourth of the evening for the Young Cods, which is a brilliant achievement with this being their first year in the competition.
Town XI: Donaghy (GK), Jones (Trialist A 63’), Wright-Ocana, Smith (Hoyle 75’), Johnson (C), Pond, Asamoah (Williams 90+5’), Glenfield, Fishburn, White, Brown.