Fleetwood's battle to beat the drop was not one Leeds loan star Coyle expected

Full-back Coyle, 22, joined the club with ambitions to help Uwe Rosler’s side mount another promotion push.

That started well with three straight wins, including victory away to tomorrow’s opponents Northampton, but then Town’s form plummeted,

And as they prepare for the reverse fixture with their fellow strugglers, Coyle says it is a shame this talented bunch are in the position they are with nine games to go.

After a win and three draws from John Sheridan’s four games in charge, Coyle (right) is keen to increase the two-point gap between themselves and the Cobblers.

He said: “I think sometimes you can over-complicate it for some reason.

“At the end of the day it is two teams out there. It is an even playing field and you have just got to go out there and do your stuff.

“We know from the start of the season what we have got in the team.

“It is a shame where we are at the moment, I don’t think it reflects on the squad itself but we are where we are.

“We have got to come through this period and hopefully stay up.

“There is no reason why we should not have that belief to stay up and it is a shame we are at this point of the season and are just talking about staying up.

“Coming to this club at the start of the year, obviously I would have liked to have been pushing for the play-offs or even better, but staying up is the objective.”

Speaking on what had gone wrong so far this term, the defender refused to point fingers.

He said: “I just think it is an accumulation of things.

“We can’t change what has happened in the previous games, and we just have to look forward now.

“Each game we go into now is almost a must-win game for us.

“We go into each game, the same – we need to get the points.

“We are not going to sit back and John Sheridan has given us the freedom to play.

“I think (the ability) has been shown from the start of the season in the first few games.

“When I came into it this year, I thought after the start we had, ‘Wow, we can do something special here’.

“But that is football and things change very quickly.

“We obviously can’t just think back to the start of the season. At the end of the day we have got to take each game as it comes and get the points to hopefully keep us up.”