Fleetwood Town head coach Scott Brown spoke after making history by taking the club to the Fifth Round of the Emirates FA Cup following a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
Carlos Mendes Gomes gave Town the lead on the hour mark when he met Phoenix Patterson’s inviting cross with an emphatic header, sending the Cod Army through to the Fifth Round of the FA Cup.
Here’s what Brown had to say:
On the game…
“We seem to like the cup. We’ve played an exceptional team four times. At half-time, we turned around to see the land of the giants coming on, they’d brought the big guns on, and we were a small team today.
“What we did do really well was look after the ball, there was composure on the ball. We didn’t just go direct because we had Promise [Omochere] up top.
“I thought we dictated and controlled the game really well in the first half. In the second half, it was always going to be getting a little bit deeper, we brought Toto [Nsiala] on to go into a back five just to try and make us a little bit more solid at the back and a little bit taller as well.”
On the reaction…
“I’m just delighted for these lads because I’ve given them hell over the last couple of days, I wasn’t happy with the performance on Saturday.
“There was no composure in the game whatsoever, we didn’t manage to control anything, we didn’t lock the pitch out, we just did whatever we wanted. So over the last couple of days, we’ve been working hard, watching a lot of videos, and getting an understanding of the game plan and how we want to play. Today was exceptional.
“Every single person did their job. The balls in the box were defended with their lives, we’re not the tallest team but it shows what we can do. You don’t always have to be the tallest team. You have to have that aggression, that desire to go and win the ball.
“From start to finish the lads were exceptional, I can’t thank them enough for taking it in, and it’s been a hard couple of weeks for them. It was always going to be a hard game today and they stood up to it.”
On the confidence tonight’s result brings…
“We’ve competed the last three times against Sheffield Wednesday, always been in the game and that’s what we believe we can do. We always believe we can win every game. We’ve got good quality players who sometimes just go very direct and don’t listen so today was pleasing.
“Confidence is huge, playing top of the league and they deserve to be top of the league. I’ve seen them a lot recently and they are a top-quality well-organised team. Today we stood up to that.
“I thought the lads’ desire to defend and get in behind the ball. It’s more about running power and wanting to do it than ‘oh it’s alright somebody else will do it’. You’ve got to want to do it yourself and have that desire to go up the park but also get that back end behind the ball as well and today the lads did that from start to finish.
“I don’t know if it’s just because it’s a cup game but now I expect that week in and week out. That is the standards that they have set.”