Simon Grayson: Any changes for FA Cup tie with Burton won't weaken Fleetwood team

The teams met at Highbury as recently as October 19, when the Brewers’ 1-0 win started a sequence of four League One games in a fortnight from which Fleetwood took only one point.

That means Grayson’s side remain rooted in the bottom three without an opportunity to improve their league predicament until Morecambe head down the coast on November 20.

That’s because Town’s scheduled trip to Doncaster Rovers a week tomorrow has been postponed due to international call-ups.

Fleetwood face two home cup-ties in the next four days, with Accrington Stanley the Tuesday visitors for a Papa John’s Trophy group decider.

But first it’s the FA Cup first round tomorrow and a revenge mission against Burton. Head coach Grayson said: “The next game is important because we want to get back to winning ways and get the Wigan match out of our system.”

Latics trailed 2-0 but won 3-2 and the Town boss added: “We were always going to be in on Wednesday for a recovery session but it gave us a chance to look at the game, analyse it with the group and move on.”

As for possible changes tomorrow, Grayson could give game-time to Conor McLaughlin and Anthony Pilkington, who sat out the Wigan game after starting the 3-3 draw with Wycombe Wanderers last Saturday.

Fans will also hope to see more of Shayden Morris, who returned from injury with substitute appearances in the last two games and scored the equaliser against the Chairboys.

Grayson added: “If we make any changes it won’t be disrespectful to the competition. Changes won’t make us any weaker – we’ve got good players and some experienced players.

“Playing Pilks and Conor on Tuesday would have been a tough ask because they’d both started their first game in a long time on Saturday.

“Shayden Morris has been out eight or nine weeks, so to play him from the start after such an impact on Saturday would have been too much of a risk.

“We don’t need him to be out six or eight weeks with another injury by playing him too quickly.

“So we have to be sensible but any time we lose a game, like we did on Tuesday, everyone has opportunities to be in the team and we want to get through to the second round of the FA Cup.”

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