Fleetwood lacked 'inner desire' in FA Cup defeat to Burton Albion says head coach Simon Grayson

Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson has demanded more ruthlessness from his players after they slid out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle for the second season running.
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Fleetwood 1 Burton 2: Brewers hit back to knock Town out of FA Cup

Dreadful conditions played their part as Burton triumphed 2-1, coming from behind to win at Highbury for the second time in 19 days thanks to Daniel Jebbison’s predatory late strike.

Town go into a 10-day break after the Papa John's Trophy group decider at home to Accrington Stanley on Tuesday, when Grayson will aim to halt a five-game winless run, four of them losses.

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Joe Garner's goal could not prevent Burton's second win at Fleetwood inside three weeks.Joe Garner's goal could not prevent Burton's second win at Fleetwood inside three weeks.
Joe Garner's goal could not prevent Burton's second win at Fleetwood inside three weeks.

The head choach clearly wants more from his players and said: "We seem to be missing that inner desire. If the ball is there in a 50-50 position we need players to want to come out with the ball. We don’t seem to have that at the moment.

“If you’re more ruthless and come out with the ball from the 50-50s, it stops the opposition getting easy chances.

“It just seems that when we make a slight mistake right now, we are getting punished. At any level, if you give away opportunities like we did, you will get punished.

“We created some good opportunities in the first half, but you can’t just rely on 45 minutes of a performance, which we probably did again in this game.

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“Conditions were horrendous for both teams but I think if it had ended 1-1, both teams would have accepted that that was a fair result.

“We were trying to force a replay late in the game but again we didn’t really do enough to ask too many questions of Burton.

“Again that was down to the conditions and the performances of some individuals, but now we’ve got to make sure that whoever goes out on Tuesday against Accrington and then against Morecambe (when Fleetwood return to League Oneaction on November 20), gets us back to winning ways.

“We have to make sure we start winning football matches again.”

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