Lagging Fleet fight back from the bottom twice in a row – with mixed results

FLEET Town lost 2-0 away to Cobham on Saturday in the Combined Counties League Premier South.

For long periods of the game a strong Fleet Town defence kept Cobham’s attack at bay, but their goal was breached once in each half.

The first was on 13 minutes, after Eoin Bolger of Cobham played a dangerous cross into the Fleet box. Although a Fleet defender stopped the ball reaching its intended target the touch on the ball sent it into the Fleet goal to give Cobham a lucky lead.

The game remained close and nervy throughout but with Fleet pushing for a late equaliser, Cobham broke away and one of their late substitutions, Will Hellistoe, made the most of his chance to score Cobham’s second in the final minute and seal the victory and points for the home side.

It comes after Fleet played out a 3-3 draw at home to Alton on Tuesday night.

The game was only three minutes old when Pat Cox found the net for the visitors to put Alton a goal up. Fleet were quickly back in the game after they were awarded a penalty after seven minutes, with the kick calmly converted by Dan Bone to bring them level.

Alton went back in front on 17 minutes through Perry Coles but, although Alton continued to look dangerous coming forward, Fleet held them out, with runs down the wing through Fareed HakeemHabeeb offering the hope of finding another equaliser – but the sides went into half-time with Alton 2-1 ahead.

Disappointment came for Alton at the break as their main forward Perry Coles had to come off and was replaced by Ollie Kavanagh.

The second half started with Fleet having more possession and looking the more likely to score, but against the run of play Alton were given a penalty of their own, which was tucked away by Pat Cox after 68 minutes to put them 3-1 ahead.

Fleet had to dig deep to try to recover from this setback, but dig deep they did and gave themselves the hope of getting something from the game when Brad Manning drove forward and cut in to smash the ball into the top left corner of the net and pull a goal back.

Fleet then brought on their two new loanees, Leo Downing and Prince Da Cruz, to give them their first minutes for the club.

As the game moved past the 90-minute mark, a perfect delivery into the box was met by the head of Josh Nunes to steer the ball past Lewis Mees in the Alton goal and set off wild celebrations from the home fans. Fleet held on for the final moments to salvage a point in a game they had never led in and send Alton home disappointed with just one point which left them in sixth and outside of the play-off positions.

On Saturday, Fleet travel over to Farnham Town for a game against the runaway league leaders.