Frustration for Simon Wiles on 'tough night' for Fleetwood

Joe Mason's hat-trick in the first 28 minutes put the hosts firmly on course for a 3-1 victory on Tuesday night.

Substitute Sam Finley’s late strike was mere consolation as Wiles had to endure a third defeat in eight days.

“It was a tough night for us,” he admitted. “The first half wasn’t good enough and we can’t allow teams a 3-0 lead before we start playing our football.

“I was very disappointed with the individual errors that cost us in that first half.

“It was frustrating to watch, really frustrating because the lads had prepared well.

“We didn’t give ourselves the best opportunity to win the game with the start that we had.

“We had some key chances and key moments that we should have done better with.

“We had to make changes to the way we needed to play to keep ourselves in the game.”

Wiles’ half-time team-talk had an effect as Fleetwood looked a different side after the break, with Finley replacing Paul Coutts, but they squandered a host of chances to get back into the contest.

Since netting nine goals in two games in November, Town have managed to score only five in nine league matches, winning once.

And Wiles added: “We felt that if we could get that first goal in the second half quickly enough we could build on that but unfortunately we got into it late.

“We still had three or four really good chances but couldn’t score. We spoke to them at half-time and asked for a positive response."

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