Striker David Ball believes Fleetwood fully deserved the three points against Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday to get their 2013/14 Sky Bet League 2 points tally up and running.
The 23-year-old played 85 minutes and put in a Man of the Match performance before being replaced by Jamille Matt in Fleetwood’s 3-1 home victory over Dagenham.
Although he did not get on the score sheet, the typically hard-working Ball was happy with the performance he put in, but was even more delighted that Town picked up their first three points of the new season.
David Ball told www.fleetwoodtownfc.com: “It was great to get the Man of the Match award and play well, I think the most important thing was that the team had a good start and we got that. Unfortunately I didn’t get the goal, it would have capped it off nicely but the three points are well deserved for everybody.”
Ball did nearly add a fourth to Fleetwood’s tally with a long range strike that went inches wide of the far post and speaking about that effort he said: “The nick took it away, but other than that I was very happy with my own performance it was just unfortunate I couldn’t get my goal.”
There was three debut goals for Fleetwood players yesterday with new captain Mark Roberts, midfielder Jeff Hughes and defender Ryan Cresswell scoring for Town and Ball says Town got the balance right between defence and attack on Saturday and also pointed out that the team has goals right across the park.
“I think we have seen out their attacks with all four defenders playing really well today. They didn’t look like they caused us much of a problem and obviously we have got players than can come up and score goals. We have got goals all over the team this year, which is going to be great for us as the season goes on.”
After starting ahead of Matt in the first game of the season, Ball insists he is looking forward to the healthy competition between him and the rest of the strikers in the Fleetwood squad as they contest for a starting spot in Graham Alexander’s side and went on to say the quality competition across the team will benefit them over the course of the campaign.
“I’m not as big as them Matt and Jon Parkin), but I try and rely on the other parts of my game. The two midfielders run past me and that allows me to do my stuff, which is promising for myself and there is healthy competition in this team and you need that every team to push you on. To do well this season everyone needs someone with quality behind them pushing along and we certainly have that in this team.”
Looking ahead to Wednesday’s Capital One Cup game with Notts County, Ball believes Fleetwood can cause an upset at Meadow Lane after the performance against Dagenham and says the experience he and the other players have at that level will be vital in getting a result.
“I think we have got a team that can definitely cause an upset. We have players here have experience in League 1 and some at even higher level so I think we could go there and get an upset on Wednesday.”