Fleetwood Town shared the spoils on the road at Adams Park as they drew 2-2 with Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday afternoon.
It was a tale of two halves, with Fleetwood dominating the first period, and the hosts running the second and, even though Promise Omochere and Jayden Stockley both found the back of the net, the points had to be shared in High Wycombe.
It was a slow start to the game for both sides spending the opening five minutes in the middle of the park, but Town looked the livelier from this point onwards as Stockley saw his header be cleared off the line by Jack Grimmer and put out for a corner.
From the resulting set-piece, which was played short to Danny Mayor on the right-hand side, Omochere got on the edge of the low delivery into the box and guided his effort goalward, only for Max Stryjek to dive low and collect the shot.
Not long after this, Charlie Adam’s side found the opener and it was the creation of former Chairboy Harry Boyes as he played a low cross into the box from the left, finding Omochere in the box, who managed to poke home from close range.
The hosts then had a flurry of attacks to try and get the scoreline back to level terms, with shots coming from Freddie Potts – which was brilliantly blocked – and their skipper Grimmer, but neither was able to get past Jay Lynch between the sticks.
This only lit a spark in the Fleetwood side, now captained by Brendan Wiredu, and they managed to double their lead on the half-hour mark when Stockley met Carl Johnston’s cross and nodded past Stryjek, making it two-nil on the afternoon.
But it wasn’t all positive from the opening 45 for Town as, on the stroke of half-time, goal scorer Omochere picked up his second yellow card of the afternoon when he dove in late to a tackle in the middle of the park, ending his work for the day.
The red card certainly gave the home side motivation to come out in the second half and push for attacks and they did just that as Dale Taylor forced a brilliant save out of Lynch before Ben Heneghan handed the ball and gave away a penalty.
Up steps Luke Leahy, who scored the game at Highbury in the season, but Lynch dove down to his right perfectly and stopped the spot kick, only for Town to give away another penalty, this time a handball from Stockley, just minutes later.
Rather than Leahy step up again, Garath McCleary decided to take it this time and he had no hesitation as he struck the ball into the top left corner with venom, therefore halving the deficit and making it a testing last 30 minutes for the Cods.
A rare opportunity in the second period for Fleetwood opened up with 20 minutes to go as Ryan Broom - who returned from injury this afternoon - whipped a cross to the head of Josh Earl in the middle, but his effort was cleared off the line by Potts.
Not long after, there was a heart-stopping moment down the other end of the pitch when substitute Richard Kone thought he had levelled the game up from inside the area but, luckily for Town, he was deemed offside by the linesman.
Wycombe did level things up later in the game as Sam Vokes’ effort on goal from just outside the area was blocked and deflected into the path of Kone, who fired into the back of the Fleetwood net with conviction seven minutes from time.
Chairboys XI: Stryjek (GK), Grimmer (C), Tafazolli, Wheeler (Kone 46’), Vokes, Leahy, Campbell (Sadlier 70’), McCleary, Low, Potts, Taylor.
Unused subs: Ravizzoli (GK), Jacobson, Forino, McCarthy, Kodua.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Johnston, Boyes (Broom 28’), Wiredu (C), Lawal, Stockley, Mayor (Holgate 90+1’), Heneghan, Omochere, Earl, Coughlan (Macadam 59’).
Unused subs: McMullan (GK), Marriott, Quitirna, Patterson.