Relegated side yet to win
Ryan Crowther has called on his team-mates to learn from their mistakes from the first half performance against Burton Albion going into this Saturday’s game against Hartlepool United.
Fleetwood found themselves 3-0 down inside 34 minutes against Burton last Saturday before fighting back to narrowly lose 3-2 – Town’s first defeat of the new Sky Bet League 2 season.
Crowther played 57 minutes of that game before being replaced with Gareth Evans and the winger wants Fleetwood to get back to the high standards that they have shown in the previous games when they travel to Victoria Park to face Hartlepool, who were relegated from League 1 last season.
Speaking to www.fleetwoodtownfc.com Crowther said: “We set our standards in the first two league games with good performances and good victories. We let ourselves and the supporters down as a team in the first half and it wasn’t good enough from the whole team, not just the defence.
“We put that right second half and it was a much better performance. Hopefully we can start like that on Saturday and play like that for the 90 minutes.
“I thought if we had gone and got the equaliser that we would have gone on and won the game. You can’t give teams a three-goal head start over yourselves. It was disappointing but we will dust ourselves off, not get to disheartened and go again on Saturday and look for the three points.
“We approach every game in the same way and we respect the teams at the top as much as we do the teams at the bottom. There are only three games gone so we can’t go off on the fact that they haven’t won a game yet out of three.
“They will still be dangerous opposition up at their place. If we stamp our authority as we have done in the first two games and the second half against Burton then I am confident that we will come away with three points.”
The 24-year-old winger has started all of Fleetwood’s league games and came on as a substitute in the 3-2 Capital One Cup defeat at Notts County and Crowther insists he is going to continue to work hard to cement his place in the first team.
Crowther pointed out that the strength in depth that Alexander has to choose from is making each player work hard to make sure they retain a starting berth every game and admits there is no room for error.
“I just want to be apart of the squad and team and play as many minutes on the pitch as I can. It has gone well so far for me at the start of the season, I have been working hard to try and stay in the team and that is what I will be continuing to do to try and keep my place in the side.
“We have got good players in the whole squad. It’s not just the lads that have been starting. The lads that are on the bench and just outside the team are all pushing each other to bring out the best form in each other because we all know that one bad performance and we could be out of the team and we know that someone else is good enough to step straight in so that keeps you on your toes.”
Fleetwood last met Hartlepool United in November 2008 in an FA Cup second round tie at Highbury and despite facing a league team, Fleetwood, who were at the time were a Blue Square North team, put up a brave fight but eventually lost 3-2.
Five years on and Fleetwood travel to Hartlepool on a level playing field and Crowther wants his team-mates to cut out the mistakes and get back to winning ways.
“We go into every game believing we can win. We have got the squad and the players to do that. We have just got to cut out the silly mistakes. Like Burton on Saturday in the first half, it was sloppy from the whole team so if we can cut those mistakes out and get back to how we have been playing then we will be fine.
“It could be a blessing in a disguise (the defeat against Burton). We want to keep our feet on the ground and we have only won two league games so hopefully we can come away with three points on Saturday.”