Goalkeeper Alex Cairns spoke to the media ahead of Fleetwood Town’s home clash against Charlton Athletic at Highbury on Saturday afternoon.
Cairns has been ever-present in Town’s campaign so far this year and was between the sticks when Town had their thrilling draw against Milton Keynes Dons earlier on in the week, with the side looking to build on that performance and aim for the win against the Addicks on Saturday.
Here’s what Alex had to say in his pre-match press conference:
On Town’s exciting style of play…
“Selfishly, I’d like to keep more clean sheets and concede less goals but, in the same breath as a team and a group, we’re playing exciting football and doing a lot of positive things on the pitch.
“There’s not many things that you can look at and say, ‘that’s an error', we’re getting punished for little things that you won’t get punished for most of the time. The work on the training ground will be more of the same I’d imagine as the only thing we’ll need to look at is being tighter in transitions.
“We’ve been playing well; I don’t think the league position really reflects the way we’ve been performing but we’ve had a look at things, and we know that results will come. I’m not worried in terms of the goals we’ve conceded but we will be working on trying to keep the door shut whilst also keeping up with the style of play that we’ve been playing as a team.”
On Saturday’s opposition…
“Everyone can beat everyone in this league, so we aren’t looking at what they have done previously, we are looking at the fact that they are going to come and want to win the game. We want to get a win on the board at home, and with the last two games being away, we haven’t been able to do that, but we are looking forward to putting on a performance for the fans.
“I know it’s an open league, it always is, and I think it will be like that all the way until the end. There are teams with more infrastructure but the spirit in this group is there and the better it gets throughout the season, the better the results will be.
“We’ve had two play-off campaigns whilst I’ve been at the club and I think you can honestly say that the spirit in this side at the moment, we could say that this is some of the best stuff that we’ve been playing since I’ve been at the club.”
On being close to becoming Town’s highest EFL appearance maker…
“It’s really nice to be close, as you know I’ve had bumps along the road, but it’s something that I’m looking forward to getting close to and achieving. It’ll be a big milestone for me and my family, we came to Fleetwood who took me in and I’m enjoying my career here – long may that continue.
“Because of my past, I’ve become ‘steelier’ and I think that tagged on with my experience, they both connect and they lead to me being less phased my most things now. I’ve seen a lot of things in life and football, and I’d like to think that I could take anything in the future head-on, as I have done in the past.
“When the gaffer [Simon Grayson] came in, he backed me all the way and reinstalled all the confidence back into me and I’ve got to thank him and his staff for that because they’ve been good to me, and I plan on being good to them as I’ll the best I can to earn the best results possible.”