Ian Watson praises Rochdale ‘bravery’ after beating Fleetwood in FA Cup

Rochdale boss Ian Watson was pleased with his team’s “grit and determination” as they saw off Fleetwood at Highbury for the second time this season to progress into the next round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win.

After Ronan Coughlan’s penalty cancelled out Luke Hannant’s opener for Dale, Baba Adeeko’s strike in the second period of extra time sealed the win which Watson feels will do his side the world of good.

He said: “I thought we started the game really well. We’ve been really keen to start to games better.

“In recent weeks we’ve started far too slow and it has meant that games have started to get away from us but today we followed our game plan and played with real purpose.

“You can tell at the moment we are playing with fear and I really do feel for the lads as that is down to them just wanting to impress so much. So for us to show real grit and determination and some real bravery is really pleasing.

“Even into extra time when the lads started to tire, the effort and application was there which was great to see. I really hope we can take some confidence from this win into the next few games.”

Fleetwood manager Matt Lawlor was left frustrated after they bowed out of the FA Cup in the first round.

He said: “Massively frustrating afternoon. I felt in the first half there was nothing and we let in a poor goal.

“We have four chances that we really need to score. For me they should be scored. They weren’t half chances, they were full chances.

“We work an unbelievable bit of play and put Will Davies in on goal. We have to score. We then build another great bit of play with a cross from Roons (Shaun Rooney) and Azza (Aaron Loupalo-Bi) has to score.

“We built rhythms of play but then didn’t capitalise on it so frustration is the word for me.”