Fleetwood stopper Neal bids to start climbing table

Town made a blistering start to the season, rising to third in the table, but have not won in six games since their 2-0 victory over Coventry at the start of last month.

The 1-1 home draw with Sheffield United in their last league game left Town 14th and they slipped a further place over the weekend, when their scheduled game at Bristol Rovers was postponed due to the Pirates’ international call-ups .

Town are only one point above the bottom four after 11 games and Neal is keen to start climbing back up the table as quickly as possible.

The Fleetwood number one said: “There is no negativity at all. We are a positive side.

“If you look at our actual performances, even though we have lost games we have not played badly. Even the MK Dons game I don’t think was a 4-1.

“There is no negativity at all. We are looking up and seeing where the season will take us.

“I don’t think we can be too happy (at the position) because we want to be in the top six.

“That is where we want to be come the end of the season, so we need to start picking up some points and getting up there.”

And the 30-year-old keeper, who joined the club in the summer after being released by Port Vale, says that he has settled into life on the Fylde coast and that head coach Uwe Rosler has built a team he hopes will have a successful season.

Neal added: “It is brilliant. I am enjoying it here.

“There were a lot of players who came to the club in the summer and everyone has settled in well.

“The new manager and new staff who have come in have settled everyone down as well.

“We have shown in the matches so far that we can match everyone in this league, including the top teams, and hopefully we can go on to have a successful season.”

Fleetwood full-back Conor McLaughlin will be hopeful of keeping his place for Northern Ireland’s crunch World Cup qualifier in Germany tomorrow after again making the starting line-up for Saturday’s 4-0 win over San Marino.

The Town right-back was replaced by Sunderland’s Paddy McNair in the 77th minute in his home town of Belfast.