It was a tale of two substitutes in the second-half as Toby Edser scored on his Fleet debut and Darren McQueen started where he left off in a Fleet shirt to seal the result in the final 10 minutes.
And that wasn’t to overshadow the first-half contribution of Greg Cundle who broke the deadlock as Chippenham played much of the final hour of the game with 10 men after Mat Jones’ dismissal.
It was a result which put Fleet top of the season’s first table and while Dennis Kutrieb won’t read a thing into that, it gave the fans a jolly song to sing on the opening day.
The Fleet boss opted for an unchanged side after his team’s final friendly demolition of Herne Bay last week.
The match was only into its third minute when Fleet fans thought they were ahead as Rakish Bingham played Poleon through on goal. He took the ball wide of goalkeeper Will Henry but it was scrambled off the line by Spencer Hamilton and despite Greg Cundle finding Bingham again with the return pass, Chippenham blocked and cleared.
A battling, mazy run by Omari Sterling-James on seven minutes took him through several blue shirts and the final tackle deposited him on the ground but the referee waved away Fleet appeals for a penalty.
Chippenham’s first venture forwards came on 14 minutes when Noah Coppin showed a turn of pace to get some clearance from his red-shirted pursuers but he flashed his effort across Mark Cousins when he might have done better in getting nearer the target.
Coppin fired another high and wide after Cundle was unfortunate to receive a yellow card for what seemed little more than a clip on Luke Russe.
It was Russe whose carefully weighted ball for Alefe Santos might have afforded the visitors the opening goal but Mark Cousins was well behind that and in the very next attack, Sterling broke upfield and fired low past the far post in response.
A challenge by Will RIchards on Craig Tanner didn’t warrant a caution to the ire of the Main Stand fans and when Tanner was chopped on the halfway line again, there was more noise from frustrated fans. But this time the referee played an excellent advantage and Cundle was on to Tanner’s pass in a flash to cut in and fire out of Henry’s reach for 1-0.
Six minutes later, Tanner’s persistence almost created another goal as he broke past his minders to get an effort on target but Henry made the save. From the other flank two minutes later, Poleon raced on to Bingham’s pass and got into the box but sent his shot across the face of goal.
There was controversy on 37 minutes when Sterling roasted Mat Jones who pulled him back but the Fleet winger kept going only to be taken out by Pablo Martinez in the box. The referee gave the first foul outside the box, denying the penalty for the second challenge inside it, and sent Jones off in the aftermath for his infringement.
The second-half was a more sedate affair early on with the 10 men of Chippenham packing their rear lines and seeking a half-chance on the counterattack. Luke O’Neill found Bingham with a ball threaded through the box on 48 minutes which the No.9 turned and got on target but that was saved and instances in front of goal were at a minimum after that.
Cundle had a third shout for a penalty just past the hour mark after Martin’s surge through midfield had set him free but nothing was given and then Poleon just couldn’t quite get on the end of Tanner’s pass in behind the Bluebirds’ defence.
That signalled the Fleet picking up the pace again and sure enough the second goal arrived on 67 minutes when more pressing play and persistence in the box by Tanner resulted in Cundle’s dangerous ball along the six-yard box. Poleon had a poke blocked on its way to goal but the ball showed just enough of itself for substitute Edser to surge into the gap to fire into an empty net.
There seemed little likelihood of Fleet letting up after that and Sterling’s neat turn produced a good shot that wasn’t far off while Christian N’Guessan’s driving run took him from midfield to the six-yard box but he got chased out of making a killer touch when he got there.
A third goal should have arrived nine minutes from time when Bingham’s quick-thinking got the ball moving forward rapidly to Edser who knocked a first-time pass into Poleon. He moved behind the last defender but diverted his shot just wide of the post as Henry came out to challenge.
The third goal did arrive on 83 minutes, however. And it was Bingham again with the quick feet and decisive pass, hoisting a superb long ball up to McQueen whose pace took him down the flank, into the box and those previous striking instincts at the Plough End didn’t desert him as he found the goal via the inside of the far post.
It was a convincing Fleet win on the opening day and although Chippenham did play with 10 men for part of it, that took nothing away from the performance of the players or the reaction of the home faithful.
EUFC: Cousins, O’Neill, Martin, Solly, N’Guessan, Wright (Edser 62), Cundle (McQueen 75), Sterling-James (Chapman 84) Tanner, Bingham, Poleon. Subs: Finney, Haigh
CTFC: Henry, Jones, Hamilton, Martinez, Richards, Santos, Gunner (Palmer-Houlden 55), Hanks, Coppin, Russe, Parker (Simpson 43). Subs: Mehew, Bradbury, King
Attendance: 1,065
