Pond targets hat-trick of clean sheets at Den

Fleetwood captain Nathan Pond says keeping Millwall's front two quiet is a challenge he is relishing in the Lions' Den.
Nathan Pond on the ball at RochdaleNathan Pond on the ball at Rochdale
Nathan Pond on the ball at Rochdale

After two wins with clean sheets over the past week, Pond is keen for another shutout in south London.

But the experienced centre-half knows it will not be an easy task to keep the dangerous Steve Morison and Lee Gregory out.

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He said: “We just need to concentrate on our own game really.

Nathan Pond on the ball at RochdaleNathan Pond on the ball at Rochdale
Nathan Pond on the ball at Rochdale

Millwall are below us in the table but hey got to the play-off final last season.

“They have got some good players, especially the front men.

“They have goals in them but we need to keep them quiet, quieten the crowd down and get off to a good start.

“I’ve come up against Steve Morison a couple of times. He scored the winner last time we played there.

Nathan Pond on the ball at RochdaleNathan Pond on the ball at Rochdale
Nathan Pond on the ball at Rochdale
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“Lee Gregory is another good player. He is always a fox in the box, so if we keep the front two quiet hopefully that will be job done.

“I quite enjoy going there. You get a lot of abuse and it is intimidating, so we have to stick together. It is you against them and that is the way I like it.

“Back-to-back clean sheets are not easy in this league. You

get put under a lot of pressure but another clean sheet on Saturday will do us nicely.”

And Pond is looking upwards after those back-to-back wins lifted Fleetwood

into the top half of League One.

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He said: “We’ve shot right up the table, so if we come back from Millwall with at

least a point we’ll see where it takes us.

“After a bit of a bad run, we got a draw at home to Sheffield United and then the two victories, which we needed to get us up the table.”

The defender praised debutant goalkeeper Alex Cairns for his role in Tuesday’s win at Chesterfield, where he replaced the injured Chris Neal just nine minutes in.

Pond said: “Conditions were not the best. It was windy and rainy but the lads dug in well. It was a good battle and a good away win.

“Chris took a knock to the head and Alex came in. It is only his second-ever League game and he was superb.

“He came out, took a load of crosses and took a lot of pressure off the back four.”