There are games of two halves and there are games where the two halves mirror each other and this was one of those, Fleet scoring early in both only to be pegged back 10 minutes from the whistle each time. And that might have been how it stayed until Craig Tanner’s last-gasp winner smashed home to send the travelling fans into raptures.
Dominic Poleon’s early goal in the first half and Tanner’s superb free-kick at the beginning of the second half looked as if they’d sent Fleet on their way but each time the home side fought back to appear to earn a point… until Tanner popped up for his customary brace.
There was just the one change for the Fleet as Haydn Hollis came into the back line, Chris Solly moving upfield to slot into Josh Wright’s position, the former Billericay man dropping to the bench.
With the mercury heading past 30°, a slow start might have been forgiven yet it was anything but. Weymouth won a corner in the first minute that Tom Blair ended up thudding into Mark Cousins’ hands but with the very next attack Fleet were ahead. It came in innocuous enough circumstances, Rakish Bingham finding Poleon with a great ball splitting the Weymouth back line. Poleon turned smartly and hit a shot that might not ordinarily have been expected to trouble goalkeeper Bert Smith but he didn’t get enough on it and it rolled over the line and in.
Weymouth tried to make in-roads and Blair drew a foul and caution from Joe Martin with a run down the right but Fleet dealt with most of those incursions without undue bother for Cousins. And Blair, the standout performer for the home side, embarked on a mazy run in and around the Fleet box that required a solid Martin tackle to deny him.
The pace slackened understandably before the first drinks break on 27 minutes and Fleet were content to hold Weymouth off, Christian N’Guessan’s run into the box and Luke O’Neill’s effort just over the only real sights of goal other than Poleon’s opener.
Smith dealt rather uncomfortably with a Sterling free-kick that was punched away from the six-yard box but Weymouth were back in it on 33 minutes with a well-worked piece of football down the right. It was that man Blair again who created the opening, sending a cross bending behind the Fleet back line for Tom Bearwish to arrive on cue to convert.
A chance to regain the lead fell three minutes from the break when N’Guessan dug the ball out in the box to find Poleon. His effort was blocked and Bingham followed in but ended up sending that one over the bar.
Weymouth had a golden opportunity of their own before the whistle, Keelan O’Connell breaking speedily down the middle and finding Claudio Ofosu in space to the right of the Fleet box but he fluffed his lines and sent his shot soaring over the bar.
Wright was introduced for Martin at half-time, the Fleet defender still sporting the plaster across his eye that had been injured last week and he’d taken a blow to the temple once more here. That didn’t upset the visitors, however, who took just three minutes to regain the lead. Cundle was fouled 30 yards out, a somewhat unnecessary one with his back to goal. Not that the Fleet cared, Tanner lining up the free-kick and arrowing a shot straight on target and past Smith for 2-1.
Cousins made an excellent stop as Bearwish shimmied his way into a shooting position on 54 minutes, pushing aside the former Eastleigh striker’s weighty shot.
And the Fleet goalkeeper was called upon once more when Cameron Murray’s snapshot on the hour headed goalwards before Cousins diverted that away from the target with a strong pair of hands.
And it was Cousins again who drew applause on 67 minutes when Weymouth found a pass that split the Fleet defence and as O’Connell met the cross into the box, the Fleet ‘keeper was out quickly to block at the Weymouth man’s feet.
Fleet were back on the offensive with a quarter of an hour left, a long clearance back upfield by Cousins releasing Tanner through the middle and he hit a low effort past the post. Sterling then tried his luck from distance with goalkeeper Smith and Weymouth unprepared for a shot and that dipped and bounced just by the near post.
But with 10 minutes left, Weymouth got their second equaliser. It came after Cousins had made an initial save from a cross into Bearwish in the danger area. But as Fleet stepped up to clear their lines, the referee blew for a foul by Sterling in the box on Bradley Ash, although it seemed the Fleet man had merely run into the Weymouth substitute. Nonetheless, Ash swung his spot-kick just beyond the Cousins’ stretch for 2-2.
Ash – who previously scored for Chippenham against the Fleet – was in the hunt for the winner and he battled towards the byline to get a shot away that again Cousins pushed up and away. The bustling Ofosu sent another effort into the side netting with the well-organised Weymouth’s tails up.
But it was Fleet who had the last chance in a frantic time added on, Poleon taking down a cross to the far post and rolling a shot under pressure just wide. And then, as the clock ticked towards 100 minutes due to the two second-half drinks breaks and a head injury to Xander McBurnie, Tanner found some space from Darren McQueen’s pass as Fleet mounted one last attack; he sized up his options which were pretty much ‘shoot’ at that late stage and he did just that to bag the points!
EUFC: Cousins, O’Neill, Martin (Wright 46), Hollis, Solly, N’Guessan, Sterling-James, Cundle (McQueen 74), Tanner, Bingham (Coulthirst 85), Poleon. Subs: Edser, Haigh
WFC: White, Nippard, Kyprianou (Boutin 73), McBurnie (Ward 90), Matsuzaka, Carlyle, O’Connell, Bearwish, Blair (Ash 73), Ofosu, Murray. Subs: Bruton, Seddon
Attendance: 753
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