U18s League: Fleetwood Town 1-4 Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town v Tranmere Rovers (Youth Alliance - North West league, Saturday 19 September, Shrewsbury Sports Village, 11am kick-off). NEXT FIXTURE:
Rob Denton. REFEREE:
Joel Bonner, Tom King. UNUSED SUBS:
Leon Reece (GK); Ryan Sears, Callum Roberts, Joel Carta (George Hughes, 45), Callum Grogan (c), Josh Agbozo (Mathew Jones, 60), Jack Butts, John McAtee, Jordan Wilson, George Hassall (Charley Higgs, 46), Nathan Millis. FULL-TIME: Fleetwood Town 1-4 Shrewsbury Town
SHREWSBURY TOWN LINE-UP:
And Shrewsbury confirmed the win with a fourth goal after 80 minutes, as Jordan Wilson connected with a flick on to volley past Johnstone.
Fleetwood had a late flurry of chances towards the end, with Djabi going close on a couple of occasions, but to no avail.
Mathew Jones stepped up and confidently converted the resulting penalty, which sent Shrews three to the good.
As the game was entering its closing stages, Ian Dawes' side were awarded a penalty with 68 minutes played – after Fleetwood's Max Johnstone felled the advancing forward.
Fleetwood looked to put pressure upon Shrewsbury's defence, however the visitors remained firm thoughtout.
As the second-half got back underway, the Shrews took the lead ten minutes into play when a well-worked free-kick fell into the path of the unmarked Callum Grogan, who simply tapped into an empty net for his first goal of the season.
HALF-TIME: Fleetwood Town 1-1 Shrewsbury Town
With five minutes to play until the break, Shrewsbury found their levelling strike, courtesy of John McAtee’s cool finish, which drew proceedings level.
The hosts looked to add to their slender lead, though midfielder Tom Coulson could not get his shot from long-range on target.
With the two sides on the hunt for the opening goal, soon enough, with half an hour played on the Fylde Coast, Fleetwood took the lead courtesy of captain Andrew Smith who reacted first from a corner to glance Fleetwood in-front following on from a goal line scramble.
At the other end, Jordan Wilson weaved his way beyond Fleetwood’s back-line but could only see his shot go over the crossbar.
However, Mamadou Djabi was unable to keep his effort from inside the penalty area on target.
Nathan Rooney’s Fleetwood entered the match with an unbeaten league record and could have taken the lead inside the early exchanges.
FIRST HALF
However, John McAtee equalised for Shrewsbury before the break and second-half goals from Jordan Wilson, Mathew Jones and Callum Grogan ensured the young Shrews returned to Shropshire with all three points.
Town's Under-18s had fallen behind in the Football League Youth Alliance - North West league clash at AFC Blackpool to Andy Smith's first-half opener for the Cod Army.
Shrewsbury Town's youth team picked up their third straight win and climbed upto second in the league with a 4-1 victory at Fleetwood Town on Saturday.