Rakish Bingham’s 40th Fleet goal set the tone for the team’s third win of January and Luke O’Neill finished things off late on with a strike that returned the club to the top of the table.
The first meeting with Chelmsford this season was one that needed a good performance against the division’s meanest defence and the Fleet served it up to pay back their volunteers who helped keep the pitch playable.
Dennis Kutrieb made three changes with the return of Josh Wright for his first appearance since September, together with O’Neill and Alex Finney. That saw Haydn Hollis, Sido Jombati and Toby Edser making way as Fleet lined up in much the same formation as against Dover on Saturday.
Keen to acclimatise, Chelmsford were into their stride quickly – former Cray wide man Jamie Yila sent a third-minute cross swinging across goal and then saw a shot blocked by Mark Cousins in an almighty goalmouth scramble after the Fleet keeper had earlier blocked two more efforts.
Fleet’s first attempt on goal came via a 12th minute deep corner that Eddie Beach had to puish out from under his bar. Six minutes on from that one, Franklin Domi surged through the middle on the break to release Dominic Poleon to his right but once more Beach got in the way of that.
Arjanit Krasniqi whistled a shot just wide for the visitors on 24 minutes as a competitive game swung end to end without ever really promising a solid opening on goal.
That changed when Fleet opened the scoring on 27 minutes and it came via Bingham with that 40th goal for the club. Another break forward left Chelmsford back-pedalling and Wright diverted a pass wide to Omari Sterling-James. He passed it inside to Bingham who paid the attentions of two white shirts no mind as he tucked it past Beach.
Sterling was doing sterling work to live at to his name at the other end too as he turned on the turbochargers to catch Yila breaking down the left before Fleet almost scored a second in bizarre circumstances. Wright’s wild swing at the ball was heading well wide until kept in play by a Chelmsford defender and Domi was able to deliver a low cross back along the goalline that brought the crowd to life once more.
Chelmsford went closer for the next assault on goal, two minutes from the break. Kai Yearn brought a great close-range block from Alex Finney as some speedy movement caught the home defence out. And Cousins then had to stay alert as Tom Blackwell’s follow-up was also on target.
Bingham went about the hunt for his 41st goal straight after the break as Greg Cundle and Sterling combined, the ball cut back into the box where the Fleet No.9 was unfortunate to meet a crowd of bodies in his way.
Sterling’s tricky weaving on the hour outfoxed Frankie Terry, nephew of John, but he couldn’t get his shot past Beach, who then saved ahead of Christian N’Guessan after another Sterling effort bobbled up in the box.
And the young Chelsea loanee might have had second thoughts on 73 minutes when he committed to clearing his lines outside his box but was harried by O’Neill who tried unsuccessfully to chip the ball towards the empty goal.
Domi had two chances in quick succession, the first from a Poleon delivery and then from O’Neill’s well-aimed throw. For that one, Domi delayed and played in substitute Edser but Beach was on hand to kill that chance.
Beach had call to be named the visitors’ man of the match when he stopped Poleon in his tracks on 84 minutes after the Fleet top scorer’s persistence had robbed Winfield on the byline.
But he was finally beaten for the second and crucial time as the game ticked down to its finale, a corner landing for O’Neill and he shimmied to find enough room to get a shot away for 2-0.
That strike upped the goal difference sufficiently to overhaul Dartford at the top of the table and cap an excellent response to those festive defeats, with three wins from the last three.
EUFC: Cousins, O’Neill, Finney, Solly, Wright (Edser), N’Guessan, Sterling-James, Cundle, Domi (Paxman 80), Bingham, Poleon (Coulthirst 90). Subs: McQueen, Jombati
CCFC: Beach, James, Barnum-Bobb, Winfield, Yearn, Blackwell (Jackson 78), Ochieng, Grant (Da Costa 78), Terry, Yila (Jones 46), Krasniqi. Subs: Lodovica, Vaz
Attendance: 944
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