Fleetwood Town 2 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date:	Tuesday 13th August 2024
Competition:	Carabao Cup (R1)
Fleetwood: 6.7
WBA: 2.9	(4-2-3-1) Wildsmith 3.4, Frabotta 3.4 (Deeming, 61 3.3), McNair 3.7 (Nelson, 61 3.6), Taylor 3.9, Hall 3.0, Diakité 3.6, Whitwell 4.3 (Iddrisa, 77 3.0), Dobbin 2.5 (Sule, 73 2.7), Heard 3.9, Cole 2.7 (Cleary, 73 3.8), Faal 4.4 Unused subs: Cann, Diomande, Mfuamba, Richards Manager: Carlos Corberán  2.3
Scorers:	Faal (8)
Referee:	Thomas Kirk 5.3
Attendance:	2,611   Home Fans 5.0   Away Fans 7.4

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Ratings submitted so far: 7

Kev Buckley:

A performance on the Fylde best filed away and forgotten.

Can't help feeling that Corberan missed a trick here, by not putting a few "senior" players on the bench, just in case his "2nd XI" weren't good enough to overcome a side relegated to the fourth tier in the previous league season.

By not doing so, he's now lost the opportunity to give most of his players outside of the matchday squad, some competitive football, in the next round.

Not clear why they weren't able to recreate any chances, as good as the slick seventh minute one that gave us the lead, during the rest of the game, but they couldn't.

For the record, McNair, playing along Taylor at centre-back, fed Diakite in midfield, and he slid a ball straight through the middle for Cole, who had come in off the right wing, who then slipped it sideways for Faal, who finished nicely.

Two minutes later though and McNair would need to block on our goalline as an unmarked Fleetwood player shot goalwards from the second of two crosses into out box.

And before you ask, it wasn't as though the second stringers were doing what the first team seemed to do a fair bit last season, as in taking the lead and then sitting back, more that they simply weren't doing anything with the possesion they were getting. and when Hall gave the ball away a couple of minutes after the McNair block, Fleetwood moved the ball to the edge of our box and slotted it home.

Whitwell, playing alongside Diakite as the defensive centre mids, seemed to be one player who was trying to make things happen and, as 25 passed, drove across the field fron right to left, before offering up a ball to be crossed, but Faal's header from the cross was miles off target.

Neither Cole, nor Dobbin, the two wingers were creating much for themselves, and when the latter lost the ball on the edge of their box, just after the half-hour, Fleetwood broke quickly, creating a 3-on-3 and although Diakite tried to get back, he failed to cover the ball carrier or the two ruuners, and once again Fleetwood conjured up another chance for a composed finish.

Cole and Dobbin swapped wings at half time but it didn't change much, in that Albion still had the lion's share of the possesion but seemed unable to do much with it.

Whether or not the substitutions that started around the hour mark were made hoping the subs would make a difference, or were just made to give them a run out, wasn't clear, although the first swap - Nelson for McNair; Deeming for Frabotta - also saw Hall move from right-back to centre-back, to allow Nelson to play as the right-back.

Ten minutes later and Sule came on for Dobbin, as did Cleary for Cole, so that was both the ineffective wingers replaced.

Shortly after that, Whitwell, probably the stand-out player on the night, and certainly the one who looked like he still might be able to create something, was inexplicably, unless he'd taken a knock, pulled off for Dowda.

With about 10 left, Cleary put in a decent cross from the left, but Sule, at the back post, couldn't get on the end of it, and, by the time Fleetwood moved in to "sit deep and hang onto the lead" mode, and in doing so allowing us a couple of half-chances that at least required blocks, it was pretty obvious that an early cup exit - think the BeIn commentary team suggested it was the "shock of the round" - was probably on the cards.

As someone posted on the BOING list, we can only hope that the manager got something from what he saw of his second stringers on the night, because this first round exit means he won't be getting to see much more of them, other than in training.