Fleetwood 1 Chesterfield 3

Fleetwood hopes of making the Johnstone’s Paint Final suffered a setback with the Northern Area Final first leg being lost to League 2 rivals Chesterfield.

Having been given first half hope the Cod Army conceded again in the second half with us now needing to overturn a 3-1 deficit if we’re going to make it to the JPT Final.

We got off to a flying start, or so we thought, when Alan Goodall followed up his thoughts earlier this week that we had to ‘move on’ from out League 2 defeat with a goal as he headed home but with Antoni Sarcevic ruled offside the goal was disallowed.

The Cod Army had been in control but then two quick goals from Ian Evatt, finishing a freekick, and Sam Morsy from the edge of the area after Scott Davies had made an error.

Again we had the ball in the net, soon after the second Chesterfield goal, with Jon Parkin celebrating his League 2 Player of the Month nomination with another goal. Amidst the Chesterfield protests the goal was eventually disallowed due to offside once more.

Finally Tommy Lee was beaten, and with the goal counting, when David Ball headed home with half time upon us to give us hope.

Half Time: Fleetwood 1 Chesterfield 2

In the second half though Chesterfield extended their lead again when Jimmy Ryan curled past Davies from 20 yards.

If Parkin’s effort later in the game had gone in, his powerful effort from a Junior Brown cross was blocked at the last, we would have really been back in the game but as it was we couldn’t find another goal and have it all to do in the second leg.

Full Time: Fleetwood 1 Chesterfield 3

It’s not over yet, I still feel that we’re capable to bridging this two goal gap but it isn’t going to be easy away.

We’ll have to keep a cleansheet to make it into the JPT Final now but as we are a threat going forward, it would have been 3-3 if the goals weren’t disallowed for offside, we can do this but Chesterfield now know that it’s their tie to lose and ours to win.