Pete Wild salutes Fleetwood’s ‘determination, fight and desire’ to win

Pete Wild saluted his Fleetwood side’s “determination, fight and desire” as their second-half recovery secured a 4-2 League Two comeback victory at home to Colchester.

Town had trailed 2-1 at half-time but roared back after the break to claim victory with two late goals at Highbury Stadium.

Fleetwood boss Wild said: “We were really pleased with the reaction and what shows today is the team has got determination, fight and desire – everything you need to be in this league.

“They’ve shown that in abundance in the second half.

“We didn’t think the performance was bad down at Cambridge but we thought we could all do more and that’s been the challenge, this week.

“The first half was not acceptable – it was rubbish.

“We didn’t defend properly, we didn’t pass the ball properly and we were very lucky to only be 2-1 down at half-time, that’s fair to say.

“We went back to a 3-5-2 second half because we wanted to press them high and get after them.

“They went out and pressed high and pinned Colchester in for long periods of the second half and we turned the ball over, created lots of attacks and scored some really good, well-worked goals.”

Colchester took a third-minute lead when Kyreece Lisbie netted from Jack Payne’s pass at the far post but Ethan Ennis struck Fleetwood’s 30th-minute equaliser from close range, after Finley Potter had directed Denver Hume’s pass into his path.

The visitors restored their advantage in the 39th minute when Fleetwood defender James Bolton handled a strike by Payne, who scored the resultant penalty.

But Jordan Davies made it 2-2 in the 55th minute when he side-footed home Ryan Graydon’s pass.

Davies then volleyed Fleetwood ahead in the 87th minute, following Ched Evans’ assist before Mark Helm sealed their win in the second minute of stoppage-time when he converted Graydon’s cross.

Colchester boss Danny Cowley said: “We conceded three goals in the second half and lost a game that we had complete control in, which was tough for us to take.

“The first half was probably as well as we’ve played since I’ve been at the club.

“We had complete control of the game in the first half and I think if you’re a good team, you’re 3-0 up at the break, not 2-1.

“We gave a really poor goal away where one of our young players went walk-about and they just opened us in the second phase.

“That meant that at half-time, we didn’t get value for our play and in the second half, it was just Jekyll and Hyde.

“There was a strong wind in their favour in the second half but we’re playing in English football; there’s a strong wind most weeks so it’s something that we have to get on with.”