Defender Josh Earl spoke on Saturday afternoon after scoring his first goal for the club in Fleetwood Town’s dominant 3-0 win over Accrington Stanley at Highbury.
Earl, who signed in the summer, said he was ‘on top of the world’ after netting the third goal of the afternoon at the weekend after nodding in Carlos Mendes Gomes’ corner midway through the second half, which calmed the game down and secured the three points. Both Mendes Gomes and Shaun Rooney got on the score sheet as well in what was a second-half performance to remember.
Here’s what Josh had to say after the game on Saturday:
On getting his first goal for the club…
“It’s a good feeling to score a goal; I’ve not got many of them on my record, so it felt great to score it, especially at home, and get a good win as well. Two defenders on the score sheet, well Roons [Shaun Rooney] is whatever he wants to be whilst he’s on the pitch, but it was a great finish from him - all the boys performed well today.
“Getting a clean sheet as a centre-half is also a great feeling, but scoring a goal with my head, which I haven’t done a lot makes you feel on top of the world. I probably need to start scoring more of those as I’m six-foot-five – I want to have more of those moments where I see one of my headers go into the corner more often.
“It settled things down as it made the game 3-0, which was good. I think the lads were all just happy with the performance in the second half, we were a bit sloppy in the first half, but to come out and put on a performance like that after the break showed the character we have in the squad.”
On securing a clean sheet at Highbury…
“We’re all very happy in the dressing room with the clean sheet; I think it’s been a long time coming. We just need to focus now on making our home form a bit better, much like the performance today, and look to take the confidence from this one into the game on Tuesday against Oxford United.
“Lynchy [Jay Lynch] made another great save to add to his record his great record. He’s important for us, especially for us defenders, we really want to keep clean sheets. Drew [Baker] has proved himself in the games so far and H [Harrison Holgate] is always steady when he comes in as well so it’s fantastic the way they can both step up and perform as they have done.
“All the lads are on cloud nine at the moment; if it ended 3-1, we still would have been happy with the win, but I think there would have been a sense of disappointment if we did concede at the end. The fans are always incredible, they always make loads of noise in our stadium, which is fantastic, and we can’t thank them enough for the support they give us.”
On the busy week ahead…
“We’re going to be preparing for the two Oxford sides like we always do, the lads are always good in training and always prepare properly for games, whether they be in the league or one of the cups. The gaffer gets us right on it, which is what we need, and we will, like I mentioned before, look to take some confidence into the week from this win.”