Manager previews Tuesday night's game under the Highbury floodlights
Graham Alexander has praised Fleetwood Town chairman Andy Pilley for reducing ticket prices for Tuesday evening’s visit of Morecambe in the first round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.Adult tickets for the game are priced at just £10 per person in all areas of the ground, while concessions are £5 whilst U16s can get in for just £1.
The manager said: “It’s a fantastic gesture from the chairman once again. He’s so keen to support the fans for their loyalty and create an atmosphere inside Highbury.”
The Cod Army enjoyed success in this competition last season as they got to the Northern Area Final before losing on aggregate to Chesterfield.
“The JPT was a great competition for us last year, and with this gesture from the chairman we’ll hopefully have the numbers at the ground that we do for a league game.”
“I’m hoping we can go one step better this time around, but there’s a long way to go yet before we can even start thinking about that.”
“In my time in football the JPT has really grown from strength to strength and clubs can now see the importance, especially towards the latter rounds.”
“As a manager it gives us a chance to play lads who deserve to playing and without a doubt we want to progress.”
Jim Bentley’s Morecambe will provide a stern test for Town though, and they too have enjoyed a fine start to their League Two campaign.
“In the first 18 months I’ve been here we’ve had some tough games against Morecambe and we know it’s going to be a competitive game on Tuesday.”
“All local derbies have that little edge on them and knowing their players and manager as we do, we won’t be expecting anything differently.”
Alexander received a boost last Saturday as Mark Roberts and Stephen Dobbie were back amongst the substitutes, but the boss insists he doesn’t want to rush them.
“It’s important that we give these lads time to recover fully and we’ll integrate them into the squad as soon as we can from there.”
“They know though with everything that’s gone on this season that they’re going to have to fight to get into the team as the boys who have played so far this season have done fantastically well.”
Season ticket holders are reminded they have until 9am on the day of the game to reserve their seat.