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Tuesday 5th September - Frickley Athletic 1-3 Fleetwood Town

Match Available on DVD/Video - See Club Shop

The Blues went down to their third successive home defeat as they finished with nine men  and lost 3-1 to Fleetwood Town. Neil Ashley was deservedly sent off for a 2-footed challenge after 17 minutes and Steve Kennedy followed him on 53 minutes. Fleetwood's Martin Moran was also sent off, on 89 minutes, but this should have happened twenty minutes earlier when he brought Alex Callery down in the box. Callery scored the resulting penalty for the Blues' consolation.

With Dean Jones not fit Calum Selby continued in the centre of defence whilst Lee Pugh and Dean Foley were both unavailable due to work commitments so Remo Nesa came into the side, starting on the left wing.  

Both sides showed well in the opening exchanges but the game changed on 17 minutes when Neil Ashley was deservedly sent off for a two-footed lunge. Fleetwood's John Hardiker was lucky to escape with a yellow card for retaliation whilst Nathan Pond also struck Ashley and received no punishment from the referee. Fleetwood soon took advantage of their extra man as they took the lead on 23 minutes with Richard Allen firing home the rebound after Gary Ingham had parried Pond's 20 yard shot. The Blues came desperately close to an equaliser on 40 minutes when Remo Nesa broke clear down the right and sent over a cross which was hacked away to the Blues left by Hardiker where Mark Ward picked the ball up, cut inside and fired in an 18 yard shot which came back off the inside of the right hand post. Again the ball was hacked clear and when Lee Stratford crossed back into the box Rob Pell looped a header over Andy Banks but it was headed off the line.

The Blues suffered a further setback on 53 minutes when Allen sent former Everton forward Stuart Barlow racing clear but he went down just outside the box under pressure from Steve Kennedy who barely attempted a challenge. However, the referee, Mr Gary Chapman, had other ideas and promptly showed Kennedy the red card and awarded Fleetwood a free-kick which Jerome Fitzgerald expertly curled just inside Ingham's right hand post. To their credit the Blues kept their heads up and continued to threaten the Fleetwood defence. On 70 minutes they had a lifeline when Callery burst into the box only to be brought down by Martin Moran. Mr Chapman immediately awarded a penalty and, given his willingness to show the red card for a similar challenge from Kennedy earlier, most people in the ground expected a further sending off. Amazingly, Mr Chapman decided this offence only warranted a yellow card. CALLERY then stepped up to convert the penalty to give the Blues hope. Unfortunately, Allen put the game out of the Blues' reach when his speculative shot from 22 yards deflected off Stratford and looped over Ingham and just under the bar after 85 minutes. Four minutes later substitute Mark Crossfield dispossessed Moran 25 yards out and was heading towards goal when Moran brought him down from behind and Moran finally saw red when the referee showed him a second yellow card (strangely not straight red!)