Fleetwood Town played out a thrilling 4-2 victory over Wigan Athletic at Highbury Stadium that included four first-half goals.
A Bosun Lawal brace and goals from Wigan’s Thelo Aasgaard and Stephen Humphrys had the two sides level at the break, before Gavin Kilkenny and Jayden Stockley.
A patient opening 15 minutes of minimal chances was certainly worth the wait, because shortly after Fleetwood took the lead in high-quality fashion.
After working the ball tightly around the area, a one-two between Lawal and Stockley bamboozled the Wigan defence, before the former struck a wonderful first-time effort into the bottom corner to give Town the lead.
Although, that joy was set to be short-lived because moments later Humphrys found an instant response for Wigan, after calmly curling into the bottom corner from the edge of the area to level the scores.
Buoyed by their equaliser, the Latics were growing in confidence, and it wasn’t long before they took the lead when midfielder Aasgaard showed great movement in the area before heading in from close range just before the half-hour mark.
Despite now trailing, Fleetwood came close to levelling again minutes later when Elijah Campbell headed narrowly wide before Ronan Coughlan had a chance of his own squeezing inches past the post.
A thrilling opening 45 minutes saw spirit, character and endeavour all embodied by Charlie Adam’s side before they dug out a well-deserved equaliser right on half time, as Bosun Lawal powered through a crowd of bodies before firing into the corner once again to earn himself a brace.
The start of the second half mirrored the first in that chances were at a premium during the early stages. That was until Adam’s men produced a well-worked set piece that saw Kilkenny hit a looping effort from the edge of the area into the back of the net to give Town a 3-2 lead.
It was proving to be a game with many twists and turns and that wouldn’t stop when Stockley added Fleetwood’s fourth to give the home side breathing space with a guided headed into the far corner following a Ryan Broom cross.
As a thrilling game entered its latter stages, Fleetwood nearly found a fifth when Danny Mayor had to be denied from point-blank range before Aasgaard rattled the bar at the other end and nearly reduced the deficit to 4-3.
Much to Fleetwood’s delight, it might not have been too far to suggest that the game had begun to somewhat settle down now. However, substitute Carl Johnston was next to test Sam Tickle in the Wigan net before a brilliant block from Wiredu denied the away side a route back into the tie late on.
With a lengthy seven minutes of added time signalled, there were to be no more twists in the tale as Charlie Adam’s men earned themselves a valuable three points on home soil with four well-worked goals.
Town XI: Lynch (GK), Wiredu (C), Lawal, Campbell, Kilkenny, Stockley, Mayor (Graydon 80’), Broom (Johnston 67’), Heneghan, Coughlan (Omochere 50’), Patterson.
Subs not used: McMullan (GK), Johnston, Samuels, Lonergan, Rooney.
Latics XI: Tickle (GK), Clare, M.Smith (S.Smith 63’) Aasgaard, Humphrys (Magennis 63’), Kerr (Jones 63’) Godo, J.Smith (McManaman 63’), Chambers, Adeeko, Goode (C) (Hughes 71’).
Subs not used: Amos (GK), Hughes, Kelman.
