Matty Blair scored against his former club to give Fleetwood Town a 1-0 lead over York City after the first leg of their League Two playoff semi-final at Bootham Crescent.
The first chance of the game fell to the home side when Ryan Brobbel crossed the ball in for Calvin Andrew, but the striker's effort was blocked by the Fleetwood defence.
Nick Pope had to remain alert in the York goal as the visitors started to see more of the ball in the first half, but the 22-year-old keeper denied Antoni Sarcevic's strike from the edge of the box.
The keeper, who is on loan from Charlton Athletic, was tested again later in the half when David Ball found some space in the box, but Keith Lowe reached it first to head back to Pope.
Blair had a chance to open the scoring shortly before the break, but could not find the target against his old team.
However, the former York winger was able to break the deadlock early in the second half when a long ball forward fell to him inside the box, leaving him with a simple tap-in.
Ball had a chance to double Fleetwood's lead just three minutes later, but his drilled effort from an Iain Hulme through-ball finished wide.
Nigel Worthington's side started to look dangerous after the hour mark as they tried to get back on level terms, with Ryan Bowman coming off the bench for the home side's first on-target shot of the game, but Chris Maxwell made the save.
Adam Reed and Michael Coulson had further efforts go just wide, while Andrew fired over from close range.
Josh Morris tried to ease the pressure on the counter-attack, but his first shot was blocked before Pope gathered his second attempt.
The home side wanted a penalty inside the final 10 minutes when Reed took a tumble while charging into the box, but the referee was not interested in their shouts.
The teams meet again at Fleetwood's Highbury Stadium on Friday.
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