Fleet fired four past Weymouth to kick-start 2023 and return to winning ways to the jubilation of home fans. And it was a Dominic Poleon hat-trick that was ultimately responsible, hand-in-hand as ever with his main man Rakish Bingham who netted the other.
After a lean Christmas period for points and goals, Fleet made the crucial breakthrough in the first-half and as the belief coursed through the home players in the second-half, more goals followed to underpin the eventual points.
Fleet made three changes to the New Year’s Day game with Christian N’Guessan, Omari Sterling-James and Greg Cundle returning to the starting eleven. Weymouth fielded new defensive loan signing Chris Francis, a Bournemouth U21, while Luke Jenkins was another new boy in their lineup.
The Terras had a couple of sniffs early on with Haydn Hollis clearing his lines on six minutes and Brad Ash smacking a shot into a Fleet wall of defenders shortly after. In response, Craig Tanner’s delivery on 10 minutes was the perfect height for Sido Jombati to attack but his header was narrowly wide.
Dominic Poleon was unfortunate to see the next opportunity, on 17 minutes, end up in roughly the same place after a ball forward from Alex Finney allowed the Fleet top scorer to weave aside his marker and return a shot just wide of the near post.
The driving rain that began to fall thereafter didn’t help the spectacle but nobody paid that much heed when Fleet took the lead on 29 minutes. Working out from the back via Hollis, Toby Edser found Poleon getting into some space behind the Weymouth line. His shot was parried by Zaki Oualah but not with enough force to keep the ball away from the goal and Poleon nipped around him to make sure of it by burying it from close range.
Weymouth boss Bobby Wilkinson, already tearing his hair out with his luck on defensive injuries recently, had to replace Harry Kyprianou with Dan Matsuzaka just before half-time after the former Southend man pulled a hamstring. Tom Blair then sustained a caution for a crunching challenge on Cundle right in front of the dugouts as the rain abated.
The visitors had the first chance of the second-half six minutes in, Mark Cousins behind that shot without too much bother and Fleet went even closer straight after that. Great work by Omari Sterling-James got him to the byline and in behind the defence and his effort across goal was steered back on target by Edser but the ball was blocked on its way to the top corner.
The top corner also survived a Hollis header from a corner on 68 minutes that Cundle then helped over the bar with his follow-up shot. Sterling’s intervention a couple of minutes later released substitute Franklin Domi for a purposeful run forward covering half the pitch but he couldn’t quite despatch his shot at the end of it.
The second-goal cheer for the Plough End wasn’t long in coming, however, as the next attack provided that. Sterling broke again, squared the ball for a clever pass back into the box by Tanner where Bingham picked it up. The skipper for the afternoon gave Francis the runaround, finding the gap he needed to power a shot in the gap Oualah had left uncovered.
Bingham might have scored a third two minutes later with another weaving bit of approach play and a curling shot that thundered back off the post before Sterling’s rising effort evaded the stretching grasp of Oualah and shaved the upright.
Fleet’s confidence was back, however, and the home fans sensed a third was in the offing. Poleon provided it 10 minutes from time, running on to a searching Bingham ball forward and confidently blazed his shot into the roof of the net.
Domi, never far from a goal on the pitch these days, whistled a shot just wide before Poleon rounded off his hat-trick as normal time concluded with another unerringly accurate effort, that one the 19th of the season for the No.14. Substitute Ben Chapman did some great work down the lift and steered it to Poleon’s whose first-time shot was saved but he pounced again to drive his second shot home.
Weymouth responded with a consolation in time added on as Keelan O’Connell registered a goal on the board for them, sneaking in at the near post. Such was Fleet’s desire for perfection that even at 4-1, the defence looked disgruntled to concede.
It certainly didn’t spoil the party as Fleet enjoyed that feeling of three points once more as the second-half start of the season started with as much of a bang as the first half of the campaign.
EUFC: Cousins, Jombati, Finney (Chapman 79), Hollis, N’Guessan (Romain 77), Sterling-James, Cundle, Tanner, Edser (Domi 64), Bingham, Poleon. Subs: Paxman, Haigh
WFC: Oualah, Carlyle, McBurnie,. O’Connell, Jenkins, Kyprianou (Matsuzaka 40), Francis, Rees (Murray 65), Rose, Ash, Blair. Subs: Oyinsan, Nippard, Buse.
Attendance: 1,210
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