Pressley’s spy could have vital data for Fleetwood

New Fleetwood boss Steven Pressley admits he’s had a spy in the camp of today’s opponents Coventry City, in the form of his assistant Neil MacFarlane.
Steve PressleySteve Pressley
Steve Pressley

MacFarlane stayed on at the Ricoh Arena after Pressley’s dismissal in February.

He worked with current Sky Blues supremo Tony Mowbray in the early days of his tenure and Pressley hopes the newest member of Fleetwood’s coaching team will give him an essential insight.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Pressley has begun his work in earnest to transform Fleetwood. And he’s drawing on one of football’s more inspirational figures as he looks to turn around a run of form which has seen Town drop into the League One relegation zone.

Ahead of this afternoon’s Highbury clash, the Scot said: “I’ve said it’s OK talking about philosophies but it’s about winning and we have to breed that.

“You only have to look at Sir Alex (Ferguson) and what he did at Manchester United –that was to put together a team of winners. We have to try to emulate that.

“It’s a fantastic playing surface at Highbury and both Coventry and ourselves have got good footballers. The most important thing is we have to start winning games of football.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“That’s the most important aspect – that we employ a winning mentality. That’s part of my job.”

In putting together a winning plan for this afternoon, Pressley will draw on any resource he can, including Coventry’s former assistant boss who will be sitting with him in the home dugout.

“He can give me an insight into several things,” said Pressley of MacFarlane. “He’s worked with Tony (Mowbray), he’s seen first hand his methods and knows how he wants his team to play. That is a help.

“Add to that our analyst has watched their last three games and put together the detail we require.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“He’ll have put together a report, answered the questions we wanted to know. We’ll make our game plan based on that.”

Pressley knows it will take more that just tactical nous to see off his former club this afternoon.

And he’s hoping Town can summon up the same kind of performance which saw off Shrewsbury Town in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Tuesday night

“It’s a busy period for us but regardless of all of that we have to win the game,” said Pressley.

“Sometimes people think it’s tactics which win you the game but it’s not - it’s the personnel. We’ll just support them all as best we can.”