Firing Fleetwood hailed by happy Town chief
L11-1579 LTFC v Swindon Supermarine at Kenilworth Road, Luton. FA Vase, luton won 2:0 Mark Wood JR 50 10.12.11
DELIGHTED Town chief Gary Brabin was full of praise for striker Stuart Fleetwood as his goal inspired the Hatters to a 2-1 win over Kidderminster Harriers on Tuesday night to propel his side into the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy, writes Mark Wood.
Having been denied from the spot, Fleetwood struck on the stroke of half time to help Luton claim a thoroughly deserved victory and book a home tie against Gateshead or Alfreton in the next round. Brabin said: “I think everyone’s seen how good a player he is when he’s first come in.
“Stuart’s probably another one who hasn’t performed to the levels he knows he is capable of.
“Stuart Fleetwood’s a force to be reckoned with and he’s the striker that we want.
“I’ve said to Stuart if he can give us the form we know he is capable of then that’s a massive plus for us.
“I thought that was more like the Stuart Fleetwood we know and love and he’s done brilliantly for Jake Howells’ goal.
“He’s probably gutted he never got on the scoresheet before he did but then he’s got a fantastic goal to get us the winner.”
Fleetwood also feels he is getting back to his best and was delighted to chip in with the crucial second goal.
He said: “I felt good when I came on at half time against Alfreton at home and it’s been a bit annoying we haven’t had another game for 10-odd days.
“But I feel fit, I feel sharp. In training the gaffer’s pulled me to one side a few times and told me what he wants from me and I think I’ve reacted to that and it’s nice he can see that as well.
“I was happy to get a goal and get the win, but disappointed I should have had a few more.
“A win is the most important thing and into the next round we go.
“It’s a great time to score and sort of changed our half time team talk as we went in there buzzing.
“We knew we should have been a couple of goals up anyway.
“We all missed a few chances in the first half and a few in the second as well so we are happy to get through.
“I’ve scored in every round so I wanted to keep that going.
“It was a strong Kidderminster team and we put out a strong team as well.
“I think it was a great game to watch, we played some good football and created so many chances and we could have been maybe four up at half time but crossed the line in the end.”
He also played an integral role to set up Howells for the opener, with Fleetwood saying: “The defender hesitated and luckily I got there ahead of him, chipped it over his head and it was an easy pass for Jake to finish. I was happy to set up the first one and get my goal as well.”
Brabin had named a massively strong side for the encounter and revealed it was the strongest squad he was able to choose as he didn’t want to ‘cheapen’ the competition.
He said: “I keep saying I haven’t got an FA Trophy team.
“It’s probably with a small element of risk in terms of the teams we pick in the early rounds but it’s always geared towards winning the game.
“Every game we’ve played in the earlier rounds, James Dance has played, Stuart Fleetwood has played, JP Kissock.
“We’ve had a lot of so-called first team players in them games and it’s just they needed to play and we’ve put a lot of trust in the development players as well.
“The two young lads who have travelled with us, Jake Woolley and young (Jerry) Nashy, they’re in the squad on merit because they’ve done fantastic in the earlier rounds.
“We’ve got a good squad and this is a chance for them to show what they are capable of and I thought they did.
“A lot of the players needed to play, that’s the full squad of players we’ve got except for George Pilkington who was fit and ready to play.
“We’ve had young Jake Woolley on the bench and he’s come on for the last 25 minutes and done really well.
“I’m delighted with the group of players we’ve got.
“I know we’ve got more and we just need to keep winning games and keep improving. If we can produce a few more performances like that I will be delighted.”
Luton played some glorious football on the night and Brabin was thrilled with the way his players carried out his instructions.
He added: “We wanted to play on the front foot and we had some good footballers in there.
“We drummed into them the importance of the other side of the game which I thought they did fantastically well.
“I think it improved the football and we played some good football.
“We involve everyone in the day-to-day stuff, so whenever we try systems everyone’s training the same and everyone understands their roles.
“I thought the lads bought into it brilliantly and, as I said, I’m delighted with the performance.
“We do work to do that and a lot of teams try to make it hard for us to do that.
“We know we are capable of that and we do try and play football the right way and we’ve just got to keep believing in what we are doing.
“We’ve just got to keep on improving. If I’m sitting here content with every aspect of the match then I’m not doing my job properly.
“We’ve got a good young squad of players here who want to work hard and want to play for this football club for the right reasons.
“They are hungry to be successful and hungry to perform to the best of their ability and that’s the way they want to play.
“If we can do that week in week out while getting some results we’re heading in the right direction.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Bedford
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
