Christian Fuchs lauds Newport ‘character’ after battling draw at Fleetwood

Newport manager Christian Fuchs saluted his side’s “character” after their goalless draw at Fleetwood.

League Two’s basement team had been under the cosh for much of the game but collected some reward, which could yet prove crucial in their fight for survival.

Fuchs said: “That’s a very useful point for us.

“The boys left it all out there, they put bodies in the way and we knew the first half was definitely a game where we were very much on the back foot, but the second half it opened up for us, and they left it all out there for the badge.

“They’re fighting hard, and that’s exactly what we need.

“I need to pay a compliment to the whole team because they showed their character, especially the last 10 minutes of the first half when we had to dig in, they showed the resilience, putting their bodies on the line, that’s exactly what we need.

“It’s good to walk away with four points from the last two away games, that’s incredible.

“We know we have it in our hands, we don’t really care too much about what the other teams do, we need to make sure we perform well, that we show that resilience every week.

“Obviously we want to be a little bit more of a goal threat as well, but if we take care of our own performance, then the results will come.”

Interim Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor was adamant they should have had all three points.

He said: “I’m disappointed and frustrated.

“They would be my overriding emotions because we absolutely dominated from minute one to 95, so there are positives to take from that performance.

“We had 25 shots, more than 70 per cent possession and I think 44 crosses. We just need to be better at completing those crosses so, performance-wise, there are positives but I’m frustrated with the result because we should have won.

“The surface is tough for the kind of football we want to play, it should be quick but that doesn’t allow us to quicken it up and obviously the final action depends on a good surface.

“We just have to play on it, both teams do, and we played really well on it today so we won’t be using it as an excuse. We just need to get more out of the games where we’re dominating.

“It was one of those afternoons, we had a chance right at the end for Will Davies and it was the first time we’d really picked a player out with clarity.

“I’m frustrated but we’re unbeaten in four and if we reproduce those performances with more intensity and better ball speed we’ll be a challenge.”