Fleetwood boss boosted for business end of season

Steven Pressley says games 'can't come quick enough' now his Fleetwood squad has real strength in depth.
Steven PressleySteven Pressley
Steven Pressley

After an injury crisis rocked the Cod Army at the beginning of the month, Pressley turned to the transfer market to add four new faces to boost his numbers.

Swedish defender Marcus Nilsson was followed to Highbury by Shola Ameobi, Wes Burns and former Blackpool defender Bob Harris.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And after dreading a fixture pile-up at the start of 2016, Town manager Pressley now has a totally different feeling.

“The games can’t come quick enough now,” he said. “There’s a really good spirit within the group.

“I think the players who were here were glad to see Shola and Bob come through the door.

“It’s been really good for the group – not only for the competition, but I think players want to see good players coming through the door.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Our recruitment has been based around a lot of younger players, but I think the group needed help with some senior ones. I think those two have brought that and a freshness.

“In the last few weeks, we’ve had so many injuries we’ve had to make changes.

“Going into the last 17 games of the season, we could well be faced with more injuries.

“What we couldn’t risk was having what we have had in the last month – that’s being short of numbers.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Pressley is spending his evenings trawling around League One watching games. He was at Bloomfield Road to watch Blackpool draw with Oldham on Tuesday.

While the visit was useful to watch two of Town’s relegation rivals, it also helped in other ways.

He explained: “It wasn’t the best of spectacles but what it told me was that neither of those teams looked like relegation teams.

“Certainly in terms of their attitude and application, both teams looked like they could go onto survive in League One.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“That has to be a stark reminder to us – the teams down there are fighting for their lives.

“We have to make sure we have the determination and grit for the fight. That’s vital in moving forward.”

Fleetwood go into today’s home game with Scunthorpe having won only one of their last 11 – at home to Bury on January 2.

They’ve drawn eight of the other 10 games and Pressley wants his side to start turning those into wins.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I’ve talked a lot about the games in hand and we have to win them,” he said.

“We’ve had far too many draws. We have to go and win the games in hand.

“If we do that, our league position will look much more comfortable.

“We are a very efficient team and hard-working, but we have to win more.

“We have a solid base to build from, but we have to be more ruthless at the top end of the pitch and score more goals.”