The Fleet were unfortunate to fall to an early deflected goal as FC Halifax Town took that and held on to it for 87 minutes to bring the three points back to Yorkshire.

Danny Searle made only the one change, Dom Poleon in for Dom Samuel, whose broken leg injury was confirmed, and he also named new signing Charles Ondo on the bench.

But it wasn’t to be the start that the manager and his team wanted or needed as the visitors found the opener with just three minutes on the clock. It was wide player Angelo Capello who found the back of the net following a double-deflected assist from Adan George that fell to Jamie Cooke who drilled it across for Capello to make sure of it.

The Fleet did look for an instant reply with Poleon getting a shot away over the goalkeeper from inside the area but the visitors had Adam Adetoro to thank for getting back in time.

Halifax had another chance that Cousins had to keep an eye on as he marshalled that one to safety with his feet before he saved after Andrew Oluwabori made a lot of ground down the left and cut inside to shoot.

The Fleet tried to break through the middle on numerous occasions and Jephte Tanga was lively once more down the right. Johnson in the Halifax goal was fortunate not to get chased down once or twice as he looked to clear his lines and then Tyler Cordner opted to shoot from distance but that went just wide of the mark.

Fleet took additional hold of possession as the half wore on and Tom Dallison just missed a header on goal that was fizzed in by Cordner just before the whistle.

The second-half got off to a slow start with no threat to either keeper and it took a penalty shout when Tanga went down in the box to raise the noise level. As the half wore on, the home team began to press forward and Ondo’s introduction saw him make a number of promising runs.

A couple of late corner deliveries caused the Halifax defence some issues and one was nearly converted by the head of Dallison, who met a couple of balls into the box as did Tyler Cordner as well.

A Craig Tanner effort from distance tried to dip over Johnson and Franklin Domi’s shot was diverted behind as well. Jamie Cooke was dismissed in time added on for a second yellow card after he clattered Ben Chapman but it was too late to give the Fleet any real advantage.

EUFC: Cousins, Phillips (Tanner 75), Page (Chapman 71), Dallison, Cordner, Wright, Kellermann (Domi 63), Fonguck (Edser 57), , Cundle (Ondo 57), Tanga, Poleon.

Subs not used: O’Neill, Berry

FCHT: Johnson, Senior, Adetoro, Capello (Galvin 81), Evans, Cooke, Smith, Hoti, Oluwabori (Emmerson 72), Bray (Pugh 85), George (Wright 68).

Subs not used: Arthur, Jenkins, Ford

Attendance: 1,379