John Sheridan hails ‘massive result’ as Cod Army conquer Cobblers

John Sheridan hailed Fleetwood’s 2-0 victory over fellow strugglers Northampton as a “massive result” as the Cod Army climbed five points clear of the relegation zone.

Fleetwood built on a midweek win over Rochdale by picking up another three points at the expense of one of the bottom-four clubs to build a five-point cushion on the Cobblers.

Kyle Dempsey’s 18th-minute strike and Cian Bolger’s 83rd-minute effort saw Fleetwood end Northampton’s unbeaten away run in 2018 as the north-west side picked up their first three points at the Highbury Stadium since they beat Oxford 2-0 in October.

But Sheridan says the job is not done yet with eight games still to go, starting with another relegation clash at AFC Wimbledon on Good Friday.

He said: “A massive result for us.

“If we keep winning and picking points up that is what we are after.

“I think the performance was a good solid performance again, a good habit of a clean sheet and to come away 2-0 against a team who are in and around us.

“It is a massive plus and we have got to continue the form that we are in.

“At the moment we are a hard team to play against.

“We are a decent team, very tough to break down, you have got everyone working their socks off and showing good habits in wanting clean sheets because we have players in the side that can score goals.”

And Sheridan was pleased to see midfielder Dempsey open his account for the season but says he should be scoring more.

He said: “Kyle should be scoring seven, eight goals a season with what he has got in his game.

“I’ve given him that license to get forward a little bit more and I’m very pleased his performance merited a goal.

“I thought he was excellent, it is a good finish and it just gives you that breathing space.”

Northampton boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was left ruing his side’s little mistakes, with Dempsey’s goal coming from a Cobblers throw-in while Bolger converted a set-piece late on.

He said: “If you don’t pick up your men and you don’t react after you have lost the ball and you are going to get done. We got done.

“It is the same with the corner with the second goal.

“The ball goes in, yes it bounces but we are not the first one to the ball. You need to be the first to the ball in both boxes.

“That is the problem at the moment. It is one step forward, two steps back. We want to keep on making steps forward, Saturday would have been a good day to do that. But it was not meant to be.

“I feel sorry for the 500 supporters that have come. They deserve more, much more.

“We can only say as a group, sorry but we are going to keep on going and give ourselves our best shot to be winning matches ASAP.”