Head coach Scott Brown spoke to the club after his side lost 2-0 to Cambridge United at Highbury on Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t Fleetwood’s afternoon on the Fylde Coast as a goal on either side of the half for the visitors – scored by Paul Digby and Gassan Ahadme – was enough to take all three points from the clash.
Here’s what the gaffer had to say after the game:
On the mistakes made in the fixture…
“I’m disappointed, I take full responsibility for that one. What we worked on in pre-season didn’t come off so we’re going to have to get back to doing what we do best. We were a bit open today and the game plan wasn’t followed through the best that we could do.
“Now we need to bounce back from this, there will be a lot of changes that’s for sure. We’ve got to make sure that we win our battles so we can win games. There was one slack pass, then another, and I think we were a bit naïve, not winning the challenges in front of us.
“Today, we didn’t do that as we were slack on the ball and got bullied in the individual battles. Their chances came from us being slack on the ball, but I know I’ve got to take the hit for this one.”
On what we can take from today’s loss…
“This fixture is definitely going to be educational for both parties – coaches and players – as we’re going to sit down and chat about what happened. I think we all need to realise, as coaching staff and players, where we all went wrong.
“You can’t be losing games at home 2-0. Last season, we were in every game and always looked like we were in control at points, but never looked like conceding two goals at home, like we did today – we could have played another 20 minutes and not scored a goal.
“It’s not just the attackers in the team, it’s the build-up play and the quality going into the box, which wasn’t there today. There wasn’t any team quality, it was more individual based with players hoping we were going to do something, that’s not what we want to show.”
On taking responsibility…
“For us, we all take it on the chin we’ll all take responsibility. When it’s a good performance by all means we’ll all take credit for it, but when it’s a poor performance we’ve all got to accept responsibility.
“We need to learn from that and take full responsibility from today. You have to have that desire, and you have to have that work rate to make sure that you outrun your opponent and sometimes its as simple as that.
“Sometimes You’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and realise what you’re doing wrong. That’s when you find out the men in the changing room. They’re a great bunch of lads, but today’s performance from start to finish was nowhere near the quality that we want.”