Rosler expects Trophy saga to run

Fleetwood Town boss Uwe Rosler would not say if they will appeal their £5,000 fine for breaking Checkatrade Trophy rules '“ but believes it is not the end of the matter.
Fleetwood's Martyn WoolfordFleetwood's Martyn Woolford
Fleetwood's Martyn Woolford

Trophy rules state teams had to field five players who started the previous or following game, or five who had made the most appearances this season.

Rosler made 11 changes from the side that started Town’s 0-0 FA Cup first round tie at Southport last Monday for their final Trophy group game against Carlisle United last Wednesday.

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Town lost 4-2 and exited the Trophy but an angered Rosler says it is disrespectful for people to call his players that featured at Carlisle, like first team players Aaron Amadi-Holloway and Ashley Eastham – among others – under-strength.

He said: “The people who mention under-strength team are very disrespectful to my players, that is only what I can say.

“They should come in front of my players and tell my players they are under-strength.

“We had written a letter, we informed them before and it was absolutely reasonable with four games in eight days.

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“We help the FA Cup to accomplish the game and we did not get dispensation like a Premier League club could.

“So from our side we did everything that we could.

“I don’t think that is the end; I think there is more talk going on regarding the amount (of fine).

“I’m not a lawyer but I assume we will have very good arguments, counter-arguments.”

Town midfielder Martyn Woolford had to be brought off in the opening stages of that Trophy game.

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It’s believed Woolford has sustained knee ligament damage and is due to see a specialist on Monday.

However, Rosler expects he will be seen back later rather than sooner.

He said: “He is not available unfortunately. He will be out for quite some time.

“At the moment we know roughly what he has and I can tell you now he will be missing for a while.

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“But on Monday he will see a specialist where we are sending all our players regarding knee problems, a highly regarded person and he will then definitely tell us.”

On the field, Rosler’s 13th-placed men host bottom-of-the-table Chesterfield today – and he is expecting a battle from the visitors.

“They have the knife between their teeth and they will come after us,” Rosler predicted.

“They have to win games, we have to win games, so we have to deal with that.

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“We saw them against Sheffield United (when they lost 4-1); for big parts of the first 60, 70 minutes they were right in the game.

“They made the game scrappy, they made the game ugly.

“That is when they are right in the game and we can’t be too pretty, we can’t be too nice.

“We have to understand what will come and we have to deal with that in our own way.”

Town have already taken three points after encountering the Spireites earlier this season.

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That came when keeper Alex Cairns made his debut, replacing Chris Neal who had been brought off with a head injury.

Town’s head coach believes that, if they repeat their performance, they will fare well.

He said: “It was only our second away win.

“We were decent, we were up and we could have got the second goal; we had some very good counter-attacks.

“In the end it was a great performance from Alex and we got it over the line.

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“We did well for the players we had available for the day and the shape we had.

“We put a lot into that game and, if we are addressing it with the same belief and attitude and hunger, we will put ourselves in a very good position.”

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