Cheltenham Town 2 Fleetwood Town 0: No wins in six for troubled Cods

Stephen Crainey’s side are now without a win in six after going down to two Cheltenham goals late in the first half and are now just two points clear of the League One drop zone.

Fleetwood made two changes to the side which had shared the spoils with MK Dons on Tuesday as Zak Jules and Anthony Pilkington started in place of Tom Clarke and Shayden Morris, who were both among the substitutes.

Their only sight of goal in the first half arrived inside the opening minute.

Danny Andrew’s dangerous ball from the left was missed by the home defence and Paddy Lane nearly capitalised but his well-struck effort was thumped into the side-netting.

Cheltenham, buoyed by a comeback midweek success over Sunderland, soon began to control proceedings.

They were close to opening the scoring in the 17th minute, when loan duo Aaron Ramsey and Callum Wright combined to tee up Matty Blair, but the ex-Fleetwood man saw his effort crash off the bar with keeper Alex Cairns beaten.

Tall forward Kion Etete headed a chance over the bar from Wright’s curling cross, but Fleetwood defended resolutely to restrict the home side to very few clear chances until just before half-time.

It all went wrong in the 41st minute, when Elliot Bonds’ ball forward to Alfie May found him in too much space and he fired in his 14th goal of the season, despite Cairns getting a hand to his shot.

And it was quickly 2-0, with May’s corner half-cleared to Mattie Pollock on the right and his fine cross was nodded in by fellow centre-half Charlie Raglan in the final minute of the first period.

Fleetwood did briefly offer more of a threat after the break, with Jules’ header pushed away by Owen Evans low to his left in the 54th minute.

Captain Andrew then saw his effort clear the bar after a free-kick was touched to him four minutes later.

Boss Crainey sent on Harvey Macadam and Cian Hayes from the bench in a bid to build some youthful energy.

But Fleetwood suffered another blow when midfielder Daniel Batty was helped off the pitch after picking up an injury with 20 minutes left.

Dylan Boyle went on in his place, but Town did not manage to test Evans again, despite the best efforts of frontmen Dan Butterworth and Ellis Harrison.

Wright nearly made it 3-0 five minutes from the end, hitting the left post with a low shot after May’s pass had released him.

The 130 travelling fans made the long journey back up the M6 with nothing to celebrate.

It was the Cod Army’s first defeat in three visits to Cheltenham, and their back-to-back wins at the start of this year now seem a long time ago. The one consolation is that none of their fellow bottom-eight sides won on Saturday.

Fleetwood: Cairns, Johnson, Nsiala, Jules, Andrew, Lane, Batty (Boyle 70), Biggins (Macadam 56), Pilkington (Hayes 66), Harrison, Butterworth; Subs not used: O'Hara, Clarke, Johnston, Morris.

Cheltenham: Evans, Raglan, Pollock, Boyle, Blair, Ramsey, Bonds, Wright, Williams, May, Etete; Subs not used: Flinders, Freestone, Williams, Hutchinson, Soule, Colkett, Sercombe.

Referee: Chris Sarginson

Attendance: 3,227

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