Scott Brown has confessed Fleetwood were due a late goal and praised the willingness of his players after the Celtic hero saw his side snatch a point with a dramatic late equaliser against Bristol Rovers - a clash where former Old Firm rival Joey Barton was sent off.
Ex- St Johnstone star Shaun Rooney opened the scoring for Brown's men after ten minutes, pouncing on a defensive lapse. However, the game was turned on its head with a near-sublime second half performance by Barton’s side as Josh Coburn levelled proceedings just before the hour mark. Aaron Collins then put Rovers in front with time ticking down as things looked gloomy for Brown. But Rooney popped up with a powerful header beyond the goalkeeper, in virtually the last action of the game after nine minutes were added on to ensure the points were shared.
“It was a game of two halves if I am being honest,” said Brown during his assessment of the match. “I thought in the first half we controlled the game, we created a lot of chances and put Bristol Rovers under a lot of pressure. In the second-half I think the home fans frightened our lads a little bit and I have to be honest and say they were fantastic [ the fans] but our lads didn’t deal with it well and we caused our own problems with sloppy defending and switching off.
“It was more ball watching and not working out where people were but we managed to get through that. We managed to score two goals, and it was about time we scored a late goal to be honest.
"The subs made an impact, they gave us some more energy and then right at the end, big Roons [Shaun Rooney] managed to flick the ball on and for me it’s just the willingness to go and score a goal.”
READ NEXT
