Head coach Scott Brown spoke to media after Fleetwood Town’s 1-1 draw in the Fourth Round of the Emirates FA Cup at Hillsborough.
In what was a vast contrast to the performance on Tuesday evening, the Cods limited the home side to few chances throughout the game and even took the lead after Promise Omochere converted a brilliant diving header, but a win wasn’t on the cards as the game ended level due to an unfortunate own goal just before the end.
Here’s what the gaffer had to say in his interview:
On the performance…
“It was a great performance by the lads and a good reaction after the Portsmouth game, which was a little disappointing. This is against a top League One side, who have fantastic players, a great stadium and a fanbase and we showed who we are today.
“They had a couple of big units on the park which we had to match up with but for us, but I felt comfortable a number of times that we were creating chances. We didn’t make their goalkeeper work hard enough - the second-half goal just pretty much summed our performance up.
“They had a couple of crosses into the box and have great movement from strikers, but we dealt with it well. That’s what good players do, they have that belief in themselves, and I have belief in them too.”
On the performance by Promise Omochere…
“Promise Omochere’s performance as well, a lone striker that’s a put in a hard shift and I felt we came here last week and didn’t work the three centre backs enough and he worked them for 90 minutes.
“It’s his [Omochere’s] hold-up play and work rate to get in the box. That’s the thing, especially coming here which is a tough place to come. But I thought he did very well.”
On the goal and the fans…
“The ball goes down one side, we managed to get the ball into the box after Paddy [Lane] kept it alive. It came back out to Scotty [Robertson], and he played it to Danny [Andrew] whose fantastic left foot puts the ball in.
“How we produced the goal is how I want us to be playing week in and week out. Andrew’s delivery was exceptional with a striker on the move who’s hungry.
“The lads put on a performance for the fans, they worked so hard and can’t be any more grateful for their commitment and desire to get into the final third. For me, we have fantastic fans, and I could hear them throughout and it was a delight to have them here.
“I couldn’t be more grateful; their attitude today was great because it was hard after the performance in the week against Portsmouth. For us it’s about how well we did, we just needed a little more momentum - the players managed to deal with what they threw at us.”