Fantastic Fleetwood hails Hatters atmosphere after convincing win

Town’s pacy strikeforce of Fleetwood and Andre Gray ran the Welshman ragged as Luton produced some fantastic counter-attacking football on the night to put themselves in the ascendancy heading into the second leg at the Racecourse Ground on Monday.

It was Luton’s sixth clean sheet since new boss Paul Buckle took charge seven games ago, and Fleetwood said: “The manager didn’t have to say too much to us before the game. He sort of said you know what you’ve got to do. A lot of us have been in this position many times before and we know what our assets are and I think we played to them and we were fantastic like we have been since the new manager came in.

“It was fantastic. Great defending, great attacking. I think it was an all-round great performance. Disappointed we didn’t get a few more goals and maybe kill off the tie, but 2-0 going to Wrexham is fantastic and I think the fans have got what they asked for.

“It (the crowd) was unbelievable, when you go out there and see it all. Fair play to the Wrexham fans as well, they brought their fair share and made quite a bit of noise as well that added to it.

“It was nice to silence them scoring two goals down that end, but the fans were fantastic and I think it really lifted the lads and it showed on the pitch as well.”

Fleetwood was integral to both goals, creating the first for Gray before again combining with the recent acquisition from Hinckley to score the second.

He said: “The first one I’ve got on to a great ball from Keith (Keane) and I’ve run down the line and he’s shown me a little but of space and I’ve managed to wriggle inside of him and I’ve seen the pull-back and Andre finished it fantastically like he does.

“The second one was kind of a role-reversal. A great backheel to put me in and when I’m one-on-one with the keeper I fancy myself nine times out of 10 and luckily I’ve just rolled it past him.

“It was on my left foot so that’s the usual corner I go with with my left. There’s no point hitting the life out of it, I just tried to concentrate on keeping it on the deck and on this sort of surface it’s just going to zip in.

“To be fair I was on a decent angle and could see if it was going to hit the post it was going to hit it and go in so I was pretty confident, but it was nice to see it hit the back of the net.”

And he was always confident that they would be able to take advantage of Wrexham’s immobile back line, saying: “We know what they are about anyway, we’ve played them before.

“They are not the most mobile at the back compared to me and Andre so we knew that would be a highlight of our play tonight.

“We worked our socks off both of us and got our rewards with the goals and like I say we are just a little bit disappointed we couldn’t get a few more.”

Conditions were difficult at times on a sodden pitch and, although at first the precipitation helped Luton’s players, it took its toll late on.

Fleetwood said: “I think it helped us in the first half because it was slick and our passing was crisp and to feet.

“Second half it did cut up and I thin a few of the boys, including myself, were feeling it in our legs. It’s a long old season and to play on a pitch like that after 46 games of the season is difficult.

“But I think some of the lads have put in a tremendous shift tonight and I think we looked fitter than them and stronger than them as well.”

Although pleased by another clean sheet, Fleetwood was slightly disappointed Luton didn’t have more than the two-goal lead their dominance deserved.

He added: “The main thing we spoke about at half time was to keep a clean sheet and if we could build on the goals then great. We defended fantastically again, I think that was our sixth clean sheet in a row, which is tremendous under the new manager and we defended great.

“We knew there was going to be pressure because they had to come for us and were very direct and have a lot of big lads and try and hit them. But I think we dealt with it fine. I don’t think there were any real clear-cut chances which they did have.

“It suits us on the break with the pace we’ve got to try and get a few more goals. I think we counter-acted it very well.

“Two goals is a great start and we would have taken that before the game I think. Obviously with the chances we did create we were disappointed one of them didn’t go in. Obviously I haven’t seen the penalty back, but if it was onside I think it was a tight one and with our record on penalties I will coun my blessings we didn’t get it maybe... The one with Janos (Kovacs) is unfortunate, but that’s the way it goes. We are happy with two goals.

“We are not going to go up there to defend, we are going to go and try and win the game up there as well to make sure.”