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Dazzling Drury sinks seasiders

TEAM SPIRIT: Andy Ford's men celebrate victory. Picture: RICHARD EATON
TEAM SPIRIT: Andy Ford's men celebrate victory. Picture: RICHARD EATON

Gravesend & N 6 Morecombe 0

FLEET lit up a chilly February day as they hit Morecambe for six and shattered their Conference scoring record in the process.

The puppetmaster was Fleet's young star Andrew Drury who tormented the Seasiders all afternoon with a dazzling array of passing and skills and added a goal to boot.

But Drury was lucky to be even on the pitch after just 10 seconds as he had to take the full force of Shaun Garnett's studs in his chest but recovered sufficiently to carry on.

But they had a helping hand for their first goal in the 13th minute from Shrimps keeper Craig Mawson when he allowed Steve Perkins' header to squeeze through his legs and into the net.

Everything Fleet touched turned to goals and they got their second deep into injury time at the end of the first half when Drury used his quick feet to get behind the defence and crossed for Rob Owen to head home.

James Pinnock made the score 3-0 seven minutes into the second half when Mawson spilled Roy Essandoh's effort and Pinnock fired the ball home from an acute angle.

Virtually from the restart Drury won the ball and sent a long ball over to Owen who was upended by Mawson in the area and the referee pointed to the spot. And Drury stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way.

Drury also had a hand in the fifth three minutes later when the former Sittingbourne man crossed to an unmarked Perkins who headed into the net.

Pinnock rounded off the scoring with a great individual effort when he fired home from an acute angle.

With 30 minutes left to play, Fleet boss Andy Ford was able to throw on new signings Manny Omiyinmi and Tony Battersby to get their first piece of the action.

A delighted Ford said: "We were due a win like that. It's been coming for a long time.

"I'm delighted for the supporters. This win was for them. It's great to come off the pitch at the end of the game at home and hear applause ringing in our ears.

"The new players who have come in have added competition and that has abviously given me options.

"But our next game is the most important. We have two tough games, Aldershot away and barnet at home, coming up and I won't relax until we reach 48 points. That's our target but we may not need that many this year.

Ford said afterwards that Drury man be out for a couple of weeks with a chest injury sustained in the game.

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