Fleetwood Town striker's self-belief has paid off

It’s been a turbulent year at Highbury with three head coaches, senior players departing and new arrivals.

Garner was the club’s only recognised striker at one stage of the summer, prior to the recruitment done by head coach Simon Grayson.

With plenty going on while the striker looked to make an impression, it was Garner’s self-belief that helped him take the opportunity when it came along.

“In football, stuff like this can happen,” he said.

“At other clubs you can have four managers in a year. You’ve just got to focus on yourself and crack on with it.

“It’s obviously difficult but you’ve just got to focus on what you’re doing, have the belief in yourself that you can come in and do the job.

“You’ve been waiting all this time, and when the opportunity arrives, you’ve got to take it.

“I feel confident. Now that I’ve finally got my first goal (this season) I feel I can crack on and keep adding to my game.

“Goals aren’t the only part of my game. I like to come to feet and link play. Hopefully now I can add more goals to it.”

Fleetwood face a tough test this afternoon with league leaders Sunderland visiting Highbury (3pm).

However, Town go into the game on the back of a 4-2 victory against Rotherham United seven days ago.

Garner, who scored Town’s second goal that day, said: “In the first few games we were creating chances but it just wasn’t going in the back of the net for us, especially in the first game against Portsmouth and the next game against Lincoln.

“It was just about keeping going, creating chances. We know with the quality that we’ve got in the team that the goals were always going to come and now that is starting to show.

“They’ve got off to a great start but they’re in this league for a reason and they’ve been here for a good few years.

“It’s a great club but it’s just one of them games, you’ve just got to tick it off.

“At the beginning of the season, against Portsmouth, there was a great atmosphere and hopefully there will be another great atmosphere against Sunderland at the weekend.

“I think Saturday was a bit of a statement as well. With Rotherham, they’ve just come down from the Championship and going away there is always going to be a difficult game.

“Putting four past them and playing well, dealing with them well, that’s a statement as well.”

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