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Fleet 6-0 Welling United

Ten goals across two Saturdays is one statistic, five goals up at half-time is another – and add into that mix a clean sheet and Fleet fans couldn’t really have asked for very much more!

But there was more – scoring in successive games for Alfie Egan, Craig Tanner netting his first pair of goals since his arrival at the club and another brace for Rakish Bingham served up a treat for the 1,302 inside the Kuflink Stadium to witness this one.

And all that without Jack Paxman and Sefa Kahraman – the two enforced changes for Dennis Kutrieb: Paxman suspended for one game and Kahraman ill during the week. In their place came Sido Jombati and Dominic Poleon, with Harrison Firth earning a place in the first-team squad for the first time in a league fixture.

Welling arrived in good form under Peter Taylor and would have had a gameplan to stifle the Fleet’s football and rely on the counterattack but it all went out of the window in the opening minute. With the first attack, Poleon’s effort bounced off the post, Tanner had two attempts on goal and Welling scrambled the ball away off the line time and again before Tanner seized control from Bingham’s follow-up once more to finally find a gap and smash it home.

Fleet needed no second invitation to pour forward after that and it could have been 2-0 on five minutes, Tanner finding Greg Cundle out wide who delivered for Poleon rushing in on the line but that chance went just wide.

It was 2-0, however, on 10 minutes. Egan made a wonderful, crunching tackle in midfield that set Fleet on the front foot once more and Tanner supplied Bingham to switch feet and steer a shot past Jack Sims from 18 yards.

It was Bingham’s turn to provide moments later, slipping a pass into Poleon and he poked that just wide from close range. The Fleet’s top scorer then brought another ball down from a high delivery under pressure from a defender, firing an effort on goal that deflected behind for a corner.

Welling struggled to keep Fleet at bay and the third arrived on 24 minutes. This time play advanced down the right courtesy of a deflection into Tobi Adebayo-Rowling and his shot was parried by Sims but Bingham had his eye in and loosed off another great left-footed effort for 3-0.

The visitors did carve out a chance as Kristian Campbell got some relief from the Fleet defence to supply Bradley Stevenson and though his shot was from a promising position, Chris Haigh was well behind it.

But Fleet were soon back looking for goals. Egan’s ball over the top dropped for Bingham but was cleared out of his path and Poleon tested Sims again from Adebayo-Rowling’s pass.

The fourth goal did arrive on 37 minutes and it was excellent, patient approach play from the home team which eventually released Cundle for a run down the left. He found Tanner who, with defenders blocking his way, still managed to find the bottom far corner with the outside of his boot.

Tanner strokes home his second goal of the afternoon

Reeling from every Fleet attack, Welling conceded a corner a few minutes later after Cundle’s burst through the middle had given Poleon the opportunity for another shot on goal. Egan’s corner was exchanged Tanner and Egan then smacked it in off the far post to bounce back across goal and in for a fifth.

There was a short period when tempers boiled over just before half-time when Tanner and Aaron Barnes clashed just inside the Fleet half before Haigh protected his clean sheet with an excellent, sprawling save from a Campbell free-kick.

There was much talk at the break as to the last time Fleet had led 5-0 at half-time but Welling were more resolute in the second half. That might have been different had Cundle’s shot, turned in by Adebayo-Rowling, not been ruled out for offside.

The home side kept creating, however, and they hit the woodwork twice inside a minute. Tanner’s corner was headed down to Jombati whose flick came back off the post and a second Tanner set piece bounced off the top of the bar.

Ben Chapman’s energetic bursts forward created a pair of chances for Bingham and Tanner that didn’t quite come off before Fleet introduced three substitutes as the minutes ticked down.

One of them, Michael West, had a good chance volleyed wide as he found space when Poleon went to ground before West again went even closer with a curling shot. But if West had no luck in finding the target, he made sure somebody else did two minutes from the end with a great ball to set Elliott Romain free; he gobbled the opportunity up to tuck away his effort in the far bottom corner as defenders tried to crowd him out.

The Kuflink Stadium was rocking by the end with supporters still wide-eyed at some of the football their side is serving up – with more to come for the visit of Maidstone United this coming Tuesday.

EUFC: Haigh, Chapman, Jombati, J.Martin, Adebayo-Rowling, Cundle, Solly (Krasniqi 60), Egan, Tanner (West 73), Bingham (Romain 60), Poleon. Subs: Kahraman, Firth
WUFC: Sims, Ezzenolim (Muscatt 46), Barnes, Statham, Pearce (Stewart 46), Shokunbi (Ilic 71), Durojaiye, Campbell, Penney, Krabbendam, Stevenson. Subs: Carr, Richards
Attendance: 1,302

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