Fleetwood Town manager, Micky Mellon, was understandably relieved to see his side achieve a fourth successive League 2 victory courtesy of Andy Mangan’s injury time winner following a flick-on by Juni
By David MitchellFleetwood Town manager, Micky Mellon, was understandably relieved to see his side achieve a fourth successive League 2 victory courtesy of Andy Mangan’s injury time winner following a flick-on by Junior Brown:
‘There was no doubt in my mind that we deserved our victory. We kept going and played some fantastic controlled football. It was a top drawer performance and we were delighted with pretty much everything. It’s always a relief when you score late. It gives everyone the emotion of going home with a last minute winner in their minds but, to be fair, I felt we could have put the game to bed by then.’
Northampton Town were rocked by the dismissal of full-back Daniel East just before the half hour and Mellon admitted that playing against ten men can be difficult:
‘It’s always tricky against ten. A couple of weeks ago we were in the same position as Northampton and coped well ourselves against Aldershot. Yesterday, we had two banks of four to get past but we passed the ball quickly and tried to get in between the lines. We just said to the lads that they must keep believing in themselves, not get frustrated, keep playing and the chance will come. A patient passing game in good areas was needed against a well-organised side who have picked up some very good points so far.’
Explaining his decision to replace striker Jon Parkin a few minutes after the dismissal of East, Mellon said:
‘Every time Jon went for a challenge the referee felt there was a decision to be made and they were going against the big man. I felt that, having already been booked, there could have been another yellow at any time. We had an able substitute ready in Steven Gillespie and the decision was a no brainer.’
Mellon was full of praise for goal scorer Mangan, who celebrated his 50
th start for Town with the all-important header:
‘Andy Mangan has been terrific for us. We knew what he was capable of when we signed him. Half way through the second half we decided to get our two strikers up against their two centre halves and we knew he would get chance because Gillespie’s movement is fantastic.’
‘We’ve got to pleased with four on the trot. A fantastic crowd will have gone home happy with what they saw. It was a really good atmosphere and we will no doubt get another on Tuesday against Port Vale.’
