If anybody was going to win this one at the Kuflink Stadium on Tuesday evening, they were going to have to breach a defence that had yet to concede a goal. And it was the Fleet who managed it, Josh Coley the man to pick the lock on the stroke of half-time to maintain his side’s 100% start to the league campaign.
Chelmsford, who hadn’t conceded a goal in five games including pre-season, were well marshalled by the Fleet defence who ended the game with their own record of clean sheets intact as they celebrated a win over one of the division’s fancied sides.
Josh Wright was forced into a change with Ben Coker injured in a lineup that included three different names overall. Kwesi Appiah returned to the starting eleven and was joined by Josh Passley and Toby Edser. Alongside the missing Coker, Charlie Seaman and Dominic Samuel also made way.
Edser was in the thick of the action for much of the 90 minutes and he was lively from the first, making headway into the Clarets box as the Fleet sought to gain the upper hand straight away. It looked promising but Chelmsford found their rhythm quickly and their best spell of the game was that opening quarter of an hour, at which point the Fleet were forced into a change when the injured Appiah made way for Aaron Cosgrave.
Louie Kudiabor’s shot was blocked on the line by Mustapha Olagunju as the visiting supporters screamed for a handball and the home defence then had to shepherd Jack Barham’s effort behind for a corner. Chelmsford grew in confidence and their passing around the Fleet box promised much but in the end delivered little.
With the Fleet defence standing tall, the home side gradually wrestled back the initiative from the 25-minute point. Passley and Olagunju combined to force the ball over the line on 34 minutes but the offside flag had been raised before Chris Haigh made two saves from the boot of his former teammate Edser. George Moncur also tried his luck as Fleet tried to pen Chelmsford in following a couple of corners but again Haigh was equal to it.
Josh Coley had typified the energetic running in the Fleet front ranks and he was rewarded for his endeavour as half-time approached. Arguably, there was little on as Edser supplied Moncur in midfield. He switched a pass out to the left for Coley who ventured towards the box, his dancing feet opening up enough space between two defenders to float a shot across goal and into the top corner.
Chelmsford emerged early for the second period but although they toiled and saw plenty of the ball, they lacked a clinical edge where it mattered most. A couple of free-kicks and corners kept the Fleet defenders on their toes while Edser earned his side one of their own when he was felled on the edge of the box, but Moncur smacked that into the wall.
With an hour on the clock, it was Edser again who popped up to trouble the visitors, sending a shot from distance crashing off the crossbar with Chelmsford scrambling to mop up the second ball as Fleet forwards loomed for another go.
Again Chelmsford came forward but their shots were wayward and on the occasion they did find the target, they lacked power and dropped straight into Cousins’ arms.
Chelmsford’s goal was clearly leading a charmed life as the woodwork saved them again on 78 minutes. Ben Chapman found Cosgrave accelerating into space and his shot bounced off the post, landing at the feet of substitute Gene Kennedy whose reaction shot was also denied by the post.
A flurry of yellow cards interrupted the final minutes with Tom Dallison’s caution in time added on providing Chelmsford with a dangerous free-kick but their last attempt on goal rather summed up their evening in the final third as it cleared the bar to land in amongst the 250-plus travelling fans in the Plough End.
That was the last act of a competitive contest and as another test of Josh Wright’s ever improving new side, it was one that the Fleet came through with flying colours.
EUFC: Cousins, Passley, Chapman, Olagunju, Ehmer, Dallison, Hessenthaler, Edser, Moncur (Kennedy 71), Coley (Samuel 80), Appiah (Cosgrave 16). Subs: Seaman, Peake, Fielding, Bellagambi
CCFC: Haigh, Ronan, Barbrook, Grimwood (Remy 59), Longe-King, Odusanya, Holmes (Castiglione 46), Kudiabor, Clark (Tamplin 78), Tompkins, Barham (Corbett 73). Subs: Hedges, Hayes, Eastwood
Attendance: 1,636 (279 away)
Photos: ©EUFC / Ed Miller and Tom Harris
