Fleetwood Town head coach Scott Brown spoke to the Club after his side were defeated on penalties in the Papa Johns Trophy at Carlisle United on Tuesday night.
Town were leading until the final minutes of the game and were on track to pick up all three points in their second group stage match against the Cumbrian side.
Shaun Rooney’s headed goal put the Cods one up, but a late goal from Duncan Idehen sent the match to penalties. Callum Morton and Danny Andrew scored from 12-yards but it wasn't enough to claim the extra point.
Here’s what the gaffer had to say:
On the match…
“It was a disappointing night. A penalty shootout and these things happen [missing penalty-kicks] but we just need to be a little bit more composed when it comes to penalties but when looking at the game itself, did we deserved to win, probably not. It’s the small details on the night, not always trying to play the killer pass as we have good players to work around that.
“What killed our momentum was that we were getting in good areas but making the wrong decisions. The speed of play died of death a little but in the final 15 minutes and that let Carlisle back into the match and that gave the fans hope and got them rowdier.
“We need some better game knowledge and understanding of how to kill a game off and I have just said to them that we are allowed to win 1-0, it’s okay because we don’t need to make it a hard 10-15 minutes for ourselves."
On being more clinical….
“You want to be ruthless in front of goal, you want to score every chance, but their goalkeeper had a blinder in the first half and made a few great saves. We created a lot of chances from set-plays, but we need to create more from open play and be more composed and make sure we make the right decisions. We want to score goal and want to entertain but sometimes we need to think about the easy pass and make it more effective on the pitch.
“We won 1-0 at Peterborough and defended really well. It’s those small details and we know teams are going to put pressure on us and we know the fans are going to be behind them like they did at Peterborough, but we were good with our structure.
“We need to do that week-in week-out if we are going to win games and it’s important, we get results as there are good teams out there and if we want to go further and be better in the league, we need to learn when we to a goal up, we can win those games.”
On the international break…
“This next week will give us time to rest but also time to reflect on the last 12-13 weeks and see where we are in stats wise and fitness levels wise so it’s going to be important this break.
“After that, we will get back into the thick of it that’s for sure. We are already looking forward to our next league match against Barnsley especially after tonight’s result and for us it’s key we turn these draws into wins now.”