Fleetwood Town’s Under-21s added another win to their recent run of form after beating Wigan Athletic 4-1 at Highbury Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
Finley Potter opened the scoring midway through the first half and, even though Leo Graham levelled the score up, it was only a minor setback for Town as a Pharrell Brown brace and a late addition from Sam Fishburn made it an easy end to the clash.
Matt Lawlor’s side started out the better of the two sides, with Harry Boyes being the star of the show in the opening stages. He created two chances early on, one for Tommy Lonergan and another for Tom Hoyle, but neither found the back of the net.
After a good save from Pat Boyes, who stopped Leo Graham’s powerful effort, the young Cods took charge of the game and started creating chances at will. 17-year-old Liam Roberts found Pharrell Brown 15 minutes in, but Matt Corran was a match for the effort.
Two more good chances were worked in the next five minutes as Roberts had a chance of his own, forcing a save from Corran, before a tricky H. Boyes free-kick found Imari Samuels, who made a brilliant run but, unfortunately, fired straight into the side netting.
The deadlock was finally broken 10 minutes before the break as a deflected Pharrell Brown cross found the head of Finley Potter, who headed home to make it 1-0. The lead didn’t last long, however, as Graham levelled it up four minutes later.
Town’s lead was restored just before the half-time break after more brilliant work from Roberts on the right, who fed in Brown on the edge of the area in acres of space, meaning he was able to calmly slot the ball inside the near post in added time.
It turned out it would be a quickfire brace for the attacking midfielder he cut onto his favoured right foot 20 yards out and managed to curl a shot perfectly inside the far post, leaving Corran no chance between the Wigan sticks.
Chances from this point on were few and far between, but Town did come close on two occasions to extend their lead. The first was by Brown, who – whilst searching for his hat-trick – saw his effort blocked before Crispin McLean hit the post from close range.
It did end up four-one right at the death as substitute Fishburn managed to get on the score sheet after he capitalised on a mistake from Corran after Harry Wright-Ocana stung his palms with a venomous effort from 25 yards out.
This win means our Under-21s have won all three of their last Professional Development League clashes and are closing the gap between them and the places above them as they are only four points off the top of the table.
Town XI: P. Boyes (GK), Johnson (C), H. Boyes (Wright-Ocana 60’), Smith, Hoyle, Potter (Whelan 60’), Roberts, Trialist, Lonergan (Fishburn 60’), Brown, Samuels (McLean 60’).
Unused sub: Donaghy (GK).
Latics XI: Corran (GK), Lloyd (C), Dwyer, Solomon, Bates, Sharif, Chentouf, Reilly, McMillan (Simms 85’), Graham (Edwards 76’), Brennan.
Unused subs: Campbell (GK), Sandison.
