Head Coach Simon Grayson spoke to the club after his side overcame Leeds United 2-1 in a pre-season friendly in front of a packed-out Highbury Stadium on Friday night.
The Cod Army conceded first as Charlie Creswell headed into the back of the net from a corner, but Fleetwood reacted well a goal from Shayden Morris and a penalty-kick from Ged Garner meant Fleetwood rode out winners on the Fylde Coast.
Here’s what he had to say:
On the performance…
“Look it’s another game and it’s our last pre-season for the whole first team lads, we said at the start of pre-season it’s the means to an end, you can win every game in pre-season then lose the first game of the season, and then you can also win every game in pre-season then also lose the first game of the season.
“I have a good affiliation with the Leeds supporters which is great and I’m trying to build that type of relationship with the Fleetwood fans where I intend to do that by playing good football and winning football matches.
“I want my team to have plenty of characteristics, you need to be hard-working, fit, structured, and organised and I think we have got that – the new players have worked into it and the players from last year have embraced it and the club feels a really good place at this moment in time.”
On the squad depth and competition…
“You don’t want your forwards to dry up, you want them to get goals where Ged (Garner) has shown us what he is capable of doing and Shayden (Morris) has been a revelation, he is quick and positive where his shear endeavour has gotten him our first and his second in these game with full credit going to him.
“The fitness levels, organisation, shape, discipline, and spirit of my players that I have seen over the past five and a bit weeks shows that we look and have a decent team here, our opposition tonight gave us a really good test with their fantastic young players, but we showed a lot of character and it’s always nice to win football matches.”
“The quality we have given us competition for places now, Anthony Pilkington has come on as well as Paddy Lane and (Callum) Camps is getting back to full fitness again, we have a few other players out injured, none of them are serious problems which shows the strength in depth that we have.”