Fleetwood Town defender Lewie Coyle spoke to the media after a thrilling 2-2 draw with Shrewsbury Town on Saturday afternoon, which saw the defender score his first goal for the club.
Coyle and his side put in a battling performance against Sam Ricketts’ team, despite having to come from behind twice. Shaun Whalley put the visitors into the lead towards the end of the first half.
The 24-year-old equalised minute after the restart – which was also his first for the club since joining in 2017, and thought it was going to mean nothing after Jason Cummings put the Salops 2-1 up with less than ten minutes to go.
Town did equalise once more five minutes later, as Josh Morris fired the leveller in to score his 10th goal of the season.
Here’s what Coyle had to say in his post-match interview…
On his first professional goal…
“It is a weight off my shoulders and has been a burden of mine since I started playing, but I have got that one and I am off the mark now, so hopefully I can continue that.
“I hope that I can put a little run together now. We have joked about it for months, and even last year the lads have said why not get one and go on a run, so hopefully that is true.
“It would have been nice if it was the winner but it got us back into the game, and unfortunately, from where we were sitting at that moment in the game, I thought we were going to go on and get a winner.
“Ched [Evans] likes to back in on defenders, and when I saw that, I just carried on my run and luckily he did and I then managed to slot it in the bottom corner.”
On the game…
“We are buzzing in a way because we went behind twice. It is always nice to show the character that we have got and we know that we have got that in abundance in this quad.
“On another side, we are disappointed because it was a game which we expected to come out on the other side with three points, at what is a vital point in the season. We need to be taking maximum points from these types of games, but in the circumstances going behind twice and then getting a point, it was pleasing.
“The gaffer [Joey Barton] was disappointed at half time and rightly so. He knows the standards that we have set on the training ground on a daily basis, and sometimes we have been guilty of not taking that into matches.
“It was a mix up for the first goal and second goal is avoidable too. It is these errors and mistakes which we need to cut out if we want to be where we think we should be at the end of the season.”
On the mentality of the team…
“The lads as I said showed great character and that is a great sign, especially at this point in the season.
“With us scoring the last goal to equalise, that just shows the lads’ mindset and that is massive, it just shows where the lads are at both mentally and physically.
"Sometimes you see teams concede a late goal and then go under, but that has never happened in the whole time that I have been here, so it is a great trait to have in your camp.”
On Bristol Rovers…
“The Shrewsbury game is done now and we cannot do anything about it. We will pick the bones out of it and cut out the mistakes.
“We know that we are a good side and that we will score goals, but we shouldn’t have to score three goals to win a game of football every week.
“We go into every game looking for a win. We never set up in a game to get a draw, we will be fully focused for the game in Bristol, and hopefully preparations go to plan and we go there and get the three points.”