Simon Grayson: Great Wes Burns goal spared Fleetwood Town players a tough team-talk at Shrewsbury

The Cod Army looked off their game until Wes Burns’ superb solo goal on the stroke of half-time set the visitors on their way.

And Kyle Vassell’s strike on 70 minutes secured Town's first back-to-back league wins since November.

“I was disappointed with how we played first half,” admitted Grayson. “I thought we were a bit leggy and a bit lethargic, and I didn’t think we did well with possession of the ball as well.

“But we got a great goal just before half-time, which gave everybody a bit of a boost. We relied on Wes to get that goal but it’s a great result.

“It probably stopped them getting a bit of a different team talk at half-time than they were going to get.

“The message at half-time was that we needed to up the intensity with and without the ball.

“We had to make sure we started the second half brightly and we did that.

“The second goal gave us that blanket we needed and then gave us the opportunity to sit in and defend.”

And Grayson was most pleased by Fleetwood's first clean sheet in seven games - the first since Town played out a goalless draw with Bristol Rovers in his first game in charge .

The Cod Army negated the hosts' threat and kept their star man quiet - Blackburn Rovers loanee Harry Chapman had scored five in his previous eight games.

Grayson added: “Collectively it’s great to keep a clean sheet because we’ve not kept too many this season.

“We saw the game out very comfortably and we were delighted to keep a clean sheet.

“We’ve watched a lot of their games and we weren’t sure if they were going to stick with the formation they used on Tuesday (in the 1-1 draw with AFC Wimbledon).

“We had to be on it and make sure we stopped people like Chapman playing because he’s been in good form.”

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