Nathaniel Pinney was the Fleet hero as he scored twice and made another goal for Liam Enver-Marum (pictured) as Tamworth rued a first-half penalty save by Preston Edwards.
Liam Daish was able to welcome back Michael West in place of Neil Barrett while skipper Paul Lorraine recovered from flu and he was in for Johnny Herd. Tamworth, having lost six games in succession and without a win in several more, didn’t take long to make their presence felt when Luke Hubbins put the boot in on Enver-Marum but West’s free-kick was gathered by goalkeeper Jon Hedge.
As if Daish’s barebones squad couldn’t much smaller, the Fleet then lost Ram Marwa as early as the ninth minute as he went down with what looked like a knee injury and Barrett replaced him. It was an opening period largely devoid of action, though West was disappointed to turn a Pinney ball close in on goal wide of the target.
Fleet probed with some attempted through balls but Tamworth were equal to it and created the best chance to that point on 36 minutes when Nabil Shariff drew a decent save from Preston Edwards. But the best was still to come from the Fleet keeper almost immediately when Kyle Patterson dinked a ball through to Shariff who again forced Edwards into action – but to Fleet’s amazement, the referee pulled the game back (despite what had looked like an advantage played) for what he deemed a foul on Patterson by Paul Lorraine.
