Fleetwood Town’s four-game unbeaten record came to halt against a rampant Burton side as they lost 4-0 at Highbury.
By Manvir RaiFleetwood Town’s four-game unbeaten record came to halt against a rampant Burton side as they lost 4-0 at Highbury.
Despite the emphatic score, the game hinged on one moment – Scott Davies’ red card.
Skipper Rob Atkinson was particularly disappointed considering Town were in good form at an essential part of the season but he didn’t want to make any vindications about their loss. “We’ve had three or four good results leading up to this game and we were hoping to back up recent performances with a good one today. However, that’s not the case.”
Fleetwood Town and Burton were drawing 0-0 and the game was evenly poised before Town goalkeeper Davies was sent off. “We’re not going to make any excuses but going a man down allowed Burton to gather momentum and they made the most out of having an extra man.”
The Cod Army tried their utmost to get back into the game and attacked in numbers which consequently left gaps in Fleetwood’s defence which Burton exploited. “Once the penalty goes in and then the second one too, we’re chasing the game. We wanted to push men forward and we’ve got a man less. It’s a result we didn’t want.”
Despite the heavy loss Rob Atkinson is already looking to future games and wants to erase the loss to Burton as soon as possible. “We have to dust ourselves down now, work hard in training throughout the week, we’ll analyse the game Monday morning and go through the things we need to work on.”
Injuries to Fleetwood were a significant influence in Saturday’s loss as key players such as Junior Brown, Jon Parkin, Ryan Crowther and Nathan Pond missed out.
However defiant captain Atkinson will now lead by example and believes Fleetwood will be raring to go come Saturday as they take on Aldershot. “We will make sure that we are ready for Saturday because we’re away to Aldershot and that will be a difficult game. We’ve got a couple of injuries which has affected us but I don’t want to make any excuses. We will fight back.”
Regardless of the final score, Atkinson wanted to take the positives out of the game and he believes that he was able to create a solid relationship with Kieron Charnock. “Obviously, we’re both centre-backs and therefore we know the roles of the job. We did have a good understanding with each other – the score-line might not reflect it but we’re professionals and we just get on with our job. We go out there for the fans and to win every game.”
Fleetwood Town are still worthy play-off contenders and Graham Alexander’s side will want to eradicate Saturday’s performance with a solid display in their next fixture against a struggling Aldershot side on Saturday 23rd February.
