Gaffer pleased after 3-1 victory over Pompey
Graham Alexander believes Fleetwood Town fully deserved the three points after the Cod Army put in a commanding display to beat Portsmouth 3-1 at Highbury Stadium on Saturday.
Striker Jon Parkin scored his tenth goal of the season after Trevor Carson had initially saved Jamille Matt’s effort in the 15th minute, before Antoni Sarcevic scored his second goal in two games from the penalty spot ten minutes later.
Matt eventually got on the score sheet in the second half with his third goal in as many games and Fleetwood’s manager was full of praise for his goal-scoring trio.
Speaking to the club’s official website in the aftermath of the game, Alexander said: “We deserved the win; we played some really good football in the first half and scored two good goals.
“The second was a penalty, but it was a great finish from Sarcevic and that put us in control.
“In the second half, we scored the third and we should have gone and been comfortable, but we allowed Portsmouth to score, which was disappointing.
“It was a good strike from the lad, but we can defend it better from the throw in and we invited a little bit of pressure from ourselves.
“Portsmouth have got a lot of attacking players and they’re going to go for it when they are 3-1 down, but I thought we defended resolutely.
“We kept them at arms length and I was really happy to see us see the game out at 3-1.”
Speaking about his scorers, Alexander added: “Jamma (Jamille Matt) has been out injured for a while, but we knew he would take a few games to get up to speed and we knew he would be good player for us and score goals.
“Sarc (Antoni Sarcevic) has continued to play as hard as he can and play hard for the team and we knew the goals would come for him.
“I thought it was a coolly taken penalty and we know Parky (Jon Parkin) has the quality he has in and around the box. That was his tenth for the season and hopefully there is many more to come.”
Town’s boss also reserved praise for the Cod Army faithful and admitted it was important to reward the fans with three points against Portsmouth for their continued loyal support on the road as well as for the recent home results.
“We were determined to win the three points today because we have been away on the road and we’ve had great support.
“We had great support the last time we were here as well when we ground out a boring 0-0 draw against Wimbledon, which we needed at the time because we were hurting.
“The fans that day were fantastic and we had to reward them with three points.
“The players responded to the atmosphere, it was great to see and hopefully the numbers that follow us down to Exeter will get a similar performance and three points as well.”
Fleetwood now have a week to recover before they make the long trip down south to face Exeter City – their first week long break since the start of February – and Alexander has praised his squad for how they have looked after themselves during that period.
“It’s been a long while, we have had a midweek game constantly for the last five or six weeks and it’s been difficult.
“As you can see from the players, though, they have kept themselves in great shape, they have worked ever so hard in training and in the games and they have looked after themselves away from the pitch.
“That’s the most important thing, we can’t baby sit them, they have to take responsibility and be professional and they have done.
“You get performances and results like that if you do that and that’s what we have do from now until the end of the season to get back into the top three.”