Skipper’s Iron will

Skipper Mark Roberts is looking for Fleetwood Town to show their steel when the Iron come to town this evening.
Fleetwood Town's Mark Roberts is shown a yellow cardFleetwood Town's Mark Roberts is shown a yellow card
Fleetwood Town's Mark Roberts is shown a yellow card

Fleetwood will be looking to quickly bounce back from the disappointment of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Chesterfield – the biggest margin of the campaign – when they welcome Scunthorpe to Highbury.

Two red cards in two games haven’t helped the Fleetwood cause but Roberts, himself cautioned on Saturday, can’t wait to exorcise the demons of that Derbyshire disaster.

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The captain said: “That’s the beauty of playing Tuesday night – it gives us the opportunity to put Saturday, all the frustrations of that game, behind us.

“You’ve just got to view it as a great opportunity. The best way to react is to win the next one.

“You can’t dwell on what’s gone. What happened on Saturday we’ll use that to make us stronger.”

Antoni Sarcevic was shown two yellow cards in the space of seconds on Saturday for foul and abusive language.

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He will sit out tonight’s game alongside Stephen Crainey, who completes a two-game ban, having been sent off against Notts County.

Roberts admitted the red cards hadn’t made life easy but Fleetwood had shown their team spirit in their response.

“It’s difficult when you do have a man sent off,” he said.

“It’s happened in the last two games. In one of them we had something to hang on to, but in the other we were 2-0 down.

“But we did look out for one another and we did dig in on both occasions.

“It’s clear that the team spirit is there.

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“There were certain things on Saturday we should have done better as a team and as individuals. We all take responsibilty for that.

“But we need to put it behind us and I’m sure we’ll do that.

“We’ve always shown this season that we respond to adversity in the best possible way. This is no exception.”

Fleetwood haven’t played under the lights at Highbury since September and Roberts is relishing the return home.

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He said: “We’ve not had a midweek game at Highbury for what seems an eternity. There’s always a great atmosphere at a night game.

“We played Barnsley a couple of weeks ago and got a midweek win in after a disappointing Saturday.

“That’s what we’ve got to go and do again.”

And the skipper believes the crowd could have a big part to play as Fleetwood look to get their play-off mission back on track.

Roberts said: “When we were down to 10 men against Notts County the crowd saw us over the line.

“On Saturday, they saw how much we tried, how much we put in.

“It inspires us to be better as players and as a team.

“Hopefully we can start a run tonight and move on from here.”