Boss wants team to fully concentrate until the final whistle
The message from Graham Alexander at full time was ‘we need to make sure that doesn’t happen again’ following Fleetwood’s 2-1 defeat against York City at Highbury.
The Cod Army conceded late in both the first and second half which resulted in Minstermen taking all three points back to Yorkshire.
On a blustery afternoon on the coast, Alexander was left disappointed with his side’s performance and expects a response on Tuesday night against Chesterfield in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
“The weather played a big part and if we had got to half time 0-0 I'd of been happy because the conditions would have been in our favour,” said the boss.
“We conceded a poor first goal just before half time and that put us on the backfoot. We gave York something to hold on to.
“We got the equaliser we deserved and we should have gone on and won it from there. We conceded another sloppy goal late on. To concede right at the end of both halves has cost us the game which is massively disappointing.
“We spoke in the dressing room at half time that we have got another 45 minutes to play so we don’t need to panic and chase the game. We told the lads chances will come because we have got quality and are capable of scoring goals.
“We had to make sure we didn’t give York any opportunities and we did that for 44 minutes in the first half and 45 minutes in the second half but ultimately we conceded late on in both halves.
“We will have to make sure that this never happens again.
“We spoke about this game been the toughest of the three we have just played. I believe it is easy to get up for games that are top of the table clashes or live on TV.
“They are just three or four games out of a season, there is still another 40 plus league games to be played. The motivation needs to be there day in day out and I thought we were just a bit off that today and it has cost us the game.
“We have to make sure we put out a team on Tuesday night that is going to take the game to Chesterfield and get a positive result.
“We have to learn from today’s lesson which is that everybody has to be at it for 95 minutes and we can’t afford to take our foot off the pedal for one minute.”