Conor McLaughlin wants to see Town keep more clean sheets this season following another defeat – this time 1-0 against Morecambe at the Globe Arena.
The defender was part of the side which fell to Padraig Amond’s first-half header on Boxing Day, despite Fleetwood forcing the issue for an equaliser at the Shrimps late on.
And the Northern Irishman hopes the Cod Army can re-find their form ahead of a trip to Wycombe Wanderers this Sunday.
“It’s not breaking for us at the minute in front of goal but if we had kept a clean sheet we’d have come away with a draw (at Morecambe),” said McLaughlin.
“We haven’t done that enough this season, and regardless of whether we managed to score, we need to come away with clean sheets.
“We’ve got a couple of games in quick succession and the lads want to put it right as soon as we can, and hopefully that starts on Sunday (at Wycombe).
“We’re not in the best of form at the minute but it’s up to us to change it. We didn’t do the right things in the first half, although we got a bit of momentum in the second and got them on the back foot, but we’re making it hard for ourselves at the minute.”
The 22-year-old was part of the battle against a direct Morecambe side which included veteran winger Kevin Ellison.
“I knew it was going to be a physical battle first and foremost,” said McLaughlin. “I thought we did well against Ellison, but we switched off at the back and it cost us in the end.
“We’re unlucky at the end with the shots cleared off the line but we’re making it hard for ourselves at the minute.”
“We know how good the squad is so we’re just disappointed in ourselves at not showing how good we are. We know how good we are because we’ve beaten a lot of teams and scored a lot of goals.
“We need to put teams on the back foot at the start of games and not just the second half. We saw in the second half that they didn’t have many opportunities at our end, so if we can keep that to a minimum we’re going to keep more clean sheets, and if we keep putting teams under more pressure like that, we’ll score more goals.”
McLaughlin was also frustrated to leave the 829 travelling Cod Army with nothing to celebrate as they witnessed a third-straight defeat.
“Amazing support again once here at Morecambe,” he said. “”We’re just disappointed we couldn’t give them something to come away with.”