Steven Gillespie reflected on the draw with Wimbledon and expressed his delight at grabbing his third goal in Town colours to help Fleetwood move up to third in the table.
By Mike McGough. Steven Gillespie reflected on the draw with Wimbledon and expressed his delight at grabbing his third goal in Town colours to help Fleetwood move up to third in the table.
The striker made only his second start of the season, as Micky Mellon made five changes to the starting line up from the last week’s defeat to Wycombe. But the decision proved to be correct, as Gillespie cut inside to curl a right footed shot into the corner on 10 minutes.
He said: “We played well, particularly first half and in the second half they’ve come out and created a few more chances. We knew they were going to be strong from set pieces and that’s where they’ve got their goal from so it’s disappointing from that point of view.
“The lads have done a couple of blocks on the line in the last minute to make sure that we’ve got the point. We looked at the league table and we’ve moved up a place, so it’s another point in the right direction. At this stage we want to win every game but we are going up the league, so we’ve got to take the positives.”
Gillespie put Town ahead early on and was delighted to grab the goal, ahead of the away trip to Chesterfield on Tuesday evening.
“I was delighted to get the goal, scoring goals is what I’ve been brought in to do, so I was pleased when it hit the back of the net. All I want to do is start games and score goals, so it was a good day, but the three points would have been even better. All I can do is go out and work hard and try and get goals and the gaffer was really on at us to go out and work hard. He wanted us to put a real grafter’s performance in and I think we did that. We’re disappointed not to win the game but we’re not too disappointed because we know that if we perform like today, particularly in the first half, we won’t be too far away.”
Wimbledon attacked in the second half and equalised with a header from a free kick on the edge of the box, and the striker thought the free-kick should not have been given.
He continued: “I was up the other end of the pitch and even from where I was stood, it looked as though he just lost his footing rather than getting fouled. I think everyone could see that his change of direction coincided with trying to make a challenge.
“I don’t think he was actually touched, but it looked like he was. It’s just one of those things, and unfortunately it has cost us on the day, but we were well aware of their threat from set pieces beforehand and were careful to try not to give away too many corners and free kicks, so we can’t really have too many arguments.”
Fleetwood take the trip to Derbyshire tomorrow night, looking to build on the point from the weekend and Gillespie I confident that Town’s attacking prowess can punish teams away from home.
He said: “We’ve done well away from home this season. Teams have to come at us a little bit more when they’re at home, which will suit us and we can break on teams. As proven from the start we’ve done well away from home and we’ll look to do that again. Chesterfield is a nice looking ground and I’m sure we’ll get a nice pitch like we have here and hopefully we can play some football.”
Supporters travel to Chesterfield departs at 3pm and costs £15. Book in the club shop or call 01253 775080.
