Head coach Charlie Adam sat down with BBC Radio Lancashire at Poolfoot Farm on Thursday afternoon and looked ahead to his side's Sky Bet League One clash at Cambridge United.
Adam, since his appointment on New Year’s Eve, has been in charge of trying to find the key to turning around Town’s form in the league and, after games against Shrewsbury Town and Derby County, the side looks to be taking on his messages, putting on a good display against a high-flying side live on Sky Sports last time out.
Here’s what Charlie had to say ahead of the game:
On having to learn on the job at Fleetwood…
“I’ve learned a lot already, had a few decisions to make in the last 12 days but, as I said in a previous interview, it’s the enjoyment that it brings daily that carries everyone through. The team is improving with every session we have and it’s your job as the manager to organise everything and go with your gut.
“Nothing prepares you for sitting in the hot seat on your own; having people around you who have experienced that and having the ability to speak to people outside of the game who have great knowledge about managing are great tools to help me gain the experience needed as well, but you also have to learn on your own.
“You have to learn on the job, and have the full trust of the club, that’s why I’m here. You’ve got to make your own decisions and stand on your own two feet and, hopefully in the coming weeks, we will make the right decisions whilst also improving the team gradually by picking up results and picking up points.”
On keeping communication simple with the players…
“As long as we keep improving the players, the results will come; the performance was good against Derby, and we can take a lot of positives from that result. When you get the opportunity to take the lead, you have to take that, but we will work on that and build on the performance this week as we prepare for Cambridge.
“Simple and clear messages are what we are sending, they know where they stand and what we want as a club daily. I’m not going to complicate it for them, the basics are we haven’t won enough football matches, we need to be better in both boxes and if we work on them, the other parts of the game will come.
“We have to have good, honest conversations with the players and get to know them; put our arms around them and show them a bit of love, that’s how we are going to get the best out of this bunch of players. I said to the players though, when we are on the grass, we work with purpose and intensity to prepare for Saturday.”
On seeing confidence grow within the squad…
“I see confidence in this group of players, I see it coming back slowly, and it was evident at times on Saturday. There was a real key moment in the game where we got to 2-1, you could see the shoulders start to lift and look to express themselves but, unfortunately, we were chasing the game.
“For large parts of the game, we were a very good side and I saw a lot of good things that we’ve worked on before the game. The question now is can we replicate those signs again against Cambridge? We’ve had a full week’s training on the grass with the lads and we’ve told them a few things they can take into the game.
“We can cause Cambridge problems when we get onto the ball and make it difficult for them. I just think this is the next game, I don’t want to look too far ahead, we just need to focus on the next game – we will look to try and win the game and that is all that’s important to us in this building.”
Preparations are well underway for Town’s next league outing which is set to be against Cambridge at the Cledara Abbey Stadium on Saturday and you can get your tickets to watch the game from the stands HERE.
To see Charlie's full-pre-match interview, you can watch it on our official iFollow HERE.