The Fleet deserved so much more than to fall to a 94th minute sucker-punch after twice coming from behind and producing an excellent second-half display at Hartlepool.
Injuries in Wednesday night’s Kent Senior Cup Final and subsequent fitness tests this weekend meant Josh Wright would only name a reduced bench of five substitutes including himself but Fleet’s performance was good enough that he needed to call on only two of them.
The Fleet’s first chance arrived with just two minutes on the clock. Despite early pressure from Pools, Mark Cousins collected a high ball and launched a pass into the path of George Moncur and the Fleet No.11’s effort from the edge of the area rattled the side netting.
Pressure from the hosts required a strong defensive display during the opening stages of the half from the visitors. Jamie Miley’s delivery from a corner was collected by Cousins while at the other end, Toby Edser’s effort was cleared for a corner.
A superb save by Cousins then denied Joe Grey from close range before Aaron Bolger came closer to his first goal in a Fleet shirt but a deflection saw that chance hit the woodwork.
End-to-end football soon swung the way of the hosts. With 28 minutes up, a well-worked run by Reyes Clearly got him the small sight of goal he needed to curl a precise shot around the defenders in his way and out of reach of Cousins.
Leading 1-0, that’s the way it stayed for Hartlepool and the first 45 would come to a close in favour of the hosts.
Fleet went out brightly in the second-half and Alex Aoraha saw his effort from an acute angle palmed away for a corner. From that, the ball was launched towards the back post and Maxx Manktelow found himself with the goal to aim at. He composed himself before striking from 10 yards for his first Fleet goal.
The score was level for only three minutes, however, before a looping header by Mani Dieseruwve put the hosts back in front.
The visitors argued for a penalty after that when Tom Parkes dived into a tackle on Aoraha to deny the Fleet shirts crowding the six-yard box and the defender then appeared to pick up the ball before the referee’s whistle but after a brief word with his assistant, the official didn’t seem to find a problem.
The Fleet’s ability to bounce back has been good in recent games and they soon began to settle back into the match despite falling behind. Aoraha pulled a ball back into the path of Moncur who scuffed his effort across goal and wide.
An equaliser would arrive for the Fleet when a great through ball by substitute Callum Harriott saw Cosgrave reach the ball and he found himself one on one with Adam Smith and the in-form striker confidently rounded the keeper and stroked it home for the second equaliser.
A lengthy seven minutes of time was added and Hartlepool would find the winner halfway through that spell when substitute Sam Folarin got up to meet Cleary’s delivery and he directed it home for 3-2.
EUFC: Cousins, O’Neill, Manktelow, Olagunju, Chapman, Aoraha (Harriott 68), Carr, Bolger, Edser, Moncur (Passley 82), Cosgrave. Subs: Wright, Anthony
HUFC: Smith, Stephenson (Charman 77), Sass-Davies, Parkes (Waterfall 68), Ferguson, Cleary, Sheron, Miley, Grey (Featherstone 62), Madine (Folarin 77), Dieseruvwe. Subs: Ombang, Hunter, Campbell
Attendance: 4,156 (53 EUFC)
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