Fleet Town (0) 3, Guildford City (1) 1
Match report by Barry Underwood
It was defeat for City at Calthorpe Park and with remaining matches running out fast the outlook does appear gloomy! The Guildford side without doubt gave their all and in the first period especially a stranger wouldn’t have known which of the two sides was chasing promotion. Fleet opened the game strongly with Sam Bartlett shooting just wide, and young Adam Withers in City’s goal saving a long-range effort. But Guildford responded well and Fleet’s goalkeeper Sam Gray reacted well to save Alex McLean’s powerful shot. On 12 minutes the impressive Tyrese Agbontean cut in from the right and his low effort was saved at full stretch by Gray with the loose ball just evading the lurking Oppong. Joel Oppong himself jinked to the byline but couldn’t pull the ball into the box. George Burgess-Allen was finding plenty of space in the attacking third and his long-range effort took a deflection just past the post. On 30 minutes City scored the goal they very much deserved. Following a corner the ball fell in the box to new signing Bertie Saunders who shot into the corner of the net. The visitors were playing some impressive football, and it was hard to fathom why they are struggling so badly in the league table. Then in the second half we found out why!
The second period was a totally different affair. There were still good moments, but the match became niggly with so many breaks in play for injury or lectures from the referee. Early on Naison O’Neill found space for a shot which lacked power and didn’t worry Gray. The equaliser came on 53 minutes when a corner sailed through the goalmouth and went into the net off of a defender. Then it was disaster for Guildford when the influential George Burgess-Allen was shown a straight red for a dangerous tackle. This immediately gave the home side momentum and set City back on their heels. In the 80th minute Abdullah Selloum won a 50/50 challenge and at the end of a scintillating run his low effort was tipped round the post by Gray. Fleet then scored their second when Alex McAllister converted Bartlett’s cross, although the winger was lucky to still have been on the field when the referee excused his kicking the ball away having realised that he had already previously been booked for diving. Adam Withers saved with his legs and in the seventh minute of stoppage Charlie Postance shot home to further enhance Fleet’s play-off push.
Team: Adam Withers, Naison O’Neill, Sam Sesay (Kaliam Safou 87), Ben Drake, Bertie Saunders, Alexander-William Nwadike, Tyrese Agbontean (Joe Atkin 75), George Burgess-Allen, Alex McLean (Abdullah Selloum 75), Kai Zini (Luca Le Page 87), Joel Oppong (Jojo Ampah 75).
Referee: Radu Lungu
Attendance – 242