Matt Lawlor hails Fleetwood for following cup win with Bristol Rovers success

Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor was thrilled that his side were able to follow up their Carabao Cup heroics with a 3-1 win over Bristol Rovers.

The Cod Army pulled off one of the great cup upsets with a penalty shootout win over reigning Premier League champions Arsenal on Tuesday night.

Town then marked their return to league action by picking up maximum points thanks to goals from Aaron Loupalo-Bi, Rhys Bennett and Josh Robertson, with Reiss Russell-Denny netting Rovers’ reply.

Lawlor said: “To make history on Tuesday night was incredible for everyone involved in the football club, but we wanted to make sure that we followed that up with a win today.

“When Grimsby beat Manchester United last season, they then lost their game at the weekend and we didn’t want that, so I was really pleased that we’ve been able to get the win.”

Lawlor felt his side put in a complete performance and were perhaps a little unlucky not to have added to their three-goal tally.

“I was really pleased with the manner of the performance but I thought we probably could have had more with the chances we created,” he said.

“Azza (Aaron Loupalo-Bi) rounded the keeper and hit the bar early on and then Batts (Jake Batty) missed a one on one at the end so it could really have been five or six.

“We had to freshen it up and make changes to the team from Tuesday as a night like that takes a lot out of you both mentally and physically, so to still perform at that level is brilliant.”

Bristol Rover boss Steve Evans felt his side let themselves down with their display.

The Gas have now lost five consecutive away league games and are without a win in their last seven matches across all competitions.

Evans said: “I don’t think we deserved anything. In the first half we were poor and we made it hard for ourselves. We didn’t feel like we stuck to the plan that we had worked on in the past couple of days.

“I’m not saying the lads aren’t trying or working hard but there is a process of working smart and we aren’t doing that.

“For a brief few moments when we got the goal we got a bit of a foothold in the match, but then we don’t track midfield runners and we concede and then it is game over.”

Evans did, however, praise the travelling support and urged them to stick with his team.

“I thought our fans were magnificent and they’re backing us even at the moment when things aren’t going great,” he said.

“I’ll stand in front of them and take the criticism just like I did with the praise we got at the start of the season when we were doing well.

“I’m glad to see the end of October but, for how bad we’ve been, we still sit just four points off the play-offs which I want us to keep in our minds.”