Patience is key to Conor comeback says Fleetwood boss

After a lightning-quick, two-goal start to his Town career against Rotherham, McAleny injured his ankle in the next league game at Northampton.

He made his big return to play the full second half in last weekend’s 4-1 defeat at Portsmouth.

But head coach Rosler stressed the 25-year-old will need time before he is the McAleny who started the campaign

He said: “Conor was something good on Saturday. It was good he got 45 minutes but obviously the Conor McAleny that left us six weeks ago is not the same Conor McAleny who played on Saturday.

“We need to be patient with him and Saturday was an important 45 minutes for him.”

McAleny missed an opportunity to equalise when Town were 2-1 down at Fratton Park but former Manchester City striker Rosler has backed him to regain his confidence.

He added: “Conor has not played for a while and he needs to get confidence back in those situations. I am sure he will.”

McAleny replaced midfielder Aiden O’Neill on the south coast as Rosler switched from 3-5-2 to 3-4-3. It paid off as Devante Cole soon levelled the scores but Pompey regained the lead within moments.

Rosler explained the substitution and said everyone needs to share responsibility for the defeat.

He said: “We needed to find a way to get back into the game and I felt that with three front players we were pinning them back.

“I felt it worked because after the period after half-time was our best.

“We got back into the game at 1-1 and had a chance to score even more goals.

“In the end we all need to look at ourselves, including myself. Losing 4-1 the way we did, we all need to take responsibilities.”

Rosler says Town need to do their jobs better in the box, with three of Pompey’s goals scored from within 18 yards.

He said: “Three are from inside our box, where we have more bodies than the opposition because we play with three centre-halves. We need to do the jobs better, that is the bottom line.

“It is not surprising me how good we can be but we need to be (that good) over bigger periods of the game.

“Saturday’s game was about fine margins. They scored a goal out of nothing – from a cross into the box we did not deal with.”