Scott Brown felt his Fleetwood Town side were too sloppy in the closing stages of their late defeat to Bolton Wanderers and did not understand the game plan as it ended up costing them dearly.
Owen Beck, making his first League One start, saw a great opportunity go wide early on at Highbury Stadium. Despite looking the better side early on, Wanderers went behind as a Carlos Mendes Gomes strike from outside the box went into the top corner past James Trafford.
It proved to be the two crucial moments of the first half, as Wanderers failed to take their opportunity when it came and the Cod Army took theirs. Despite plenty of promising play, the Whites went in 1-0 down at the break.
After half-time, Charles fired an effort over and Shaun Rooney was booked after Beck went down clutching his face, which was followed by both sets of players having to be separated. A flurry of chances followed for the Whites, including for Charles near the six yard box as he could not connect with a cross, while Afolayan's low cross from a yard out would have been a goal if anyone had got a touch on it.
But Conor Bradley struck five minutes from the end to finish off Kieran Sadlier's great work on the left flank, the former Rotherham United man putting in a low effort to the back post for the Liverpool loanee to fire home. And Dapo Afolayan fired home late on from Josh Sheehan's cross to seal the three points and spark jubilant scenes in the away end.
After seeing his side go in front and keep the lead for the bulk of the game as well as show threats on the counterattack, Brown was disappointed the Cod Army had come up short but pinpointed the reason why.
He said: “I thought the lads did well in the first 85 minutes, but the last ten minutes were very sloppy. Not understanding the game plan at times and losing men in the box was a bit disappointing, it was individual errors that cost us today.
“You can never fault their efforts as they were exceptional in the first half; I thought we played some good football, created some chances, and was a threat on the counter so it’s disappointing to be leading in the 85 th minute and lose.
“You know how momentum is in football and you’ve got to be able to deal with that and have to take some responsibility on the park – we didn’t do that in the last ten minutes.”
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