Graham Alexander speaks to the club website after Robins victory
Graham Alexander believes Fleetwood Town showed great spirit to fight back from a goal down and claim all three points against Cheltenham Town at the Abbey Business Stadium.
Cheltenham’s veteran striker, Jamie Cureton, fired the hosts in front just after the half hour mark as Fleetwood struggled to impose themselves on the game in the opening 45 minutes.
After Alexander spoke to his players at half-time, though, Fleetwood fought back with Antoni Sarcevic converting from the penalty spot ten minutes after the break, before Blackburn Rovers loanee, Josh Morris, netted his first Town goal ten minutes later.
Alexander’s side remained resilient at the back as they resisted a late Cheltenham onslaught on an afternoon when the three teams directly above them in the Sky Bet League 2 automatic promotion places all failed to win.
With that, Fleetwood closed the gap on the top three to just three points and also booked their place in the play-offs at the very least.
Speaking to the club’s official website, Alexander said: “We put ourselves on the back foot with the first half showing, conceded a goal, and we had to dig deep to get three points out of this game.
“The players did that, it was great to see and the second half was much improved from the first.
“We said our bits and pieces on what we had to do tactically and then we left them to it. It was down to them, it was down to the players, players always win games, it’s not what we do.
“They went out and showed the right spirit and that’s all it had to be. We needed more spirit and more tempo because we know the quality is there. That’s what we did and we got the three points.”
“There was a lot of pressure on that (spot kick) – especially at this stage of the season – 1-0 down away from home and he showed no nerves and banged it in.
“Josh followed it up with another good finish and I thought we played really well in the second half.
“We had defend at times from a lot of pressure from set-pieces coming into the box, but when we had to, we stood up to it, and when Maxy (Chris Maxwell) had to, he stood up to it. It was great to see.
“We have said all along it is a squad game, it’s a squad success and the players that came on contributed greatly and those that didn’t get on supported the team from the sidelines.
“That’s what it has to be, there’s no short cuts, you have to have the full support from the whole squad and we had that today.”
Despite securing a play-off berth, Fleetwood kept their automatic promotion hopes alive.
Three games remain of the season – including a possible dramatic finale at Chesterfield – and Alexander insists the target for his side is maximum points.
“I didn’t believe the top two were clear and only time will tell, but there is still three games left for all of us,” Alexander added.
“We can only control our points total and we have to go for maximum points every game. If we do that, we will give ourselves a good chance and that’s what we have to focus on.”
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