Simon Grayson “immensely proud” after Fleetwood thrash Rotherham

Fleetwood manager Simon Grayson believes their 4-2 win at Rotherham demonstrated his side are finally getting reward for their early-season efforts having opened with four straight defeats.

All of those losses were by one goal but strikes from Callum Morton, Ged Garner, Danny Andrew and Callum Camps extended the Cod Army’s unbeaten run to a fourth game in all competitions.

They had trailed 2-1 at the break following efforts from Michael Smith and Kieran Sadlier for the Millers.

Grayson said: “We are a decent team and, even when we lost the first four games, we played good football but did not get the breaks so a result like this reiterates to everyone the work we are doing in training and in match-day situations is right.

“The players are full of spirit and confidence and, while playing Portsmouth, Stoke, Lincoln and Sheffield Wednesday in those first four games was tough, I’ve never been in that situation where we could have won them all and ended up losing them.

“But I’m immensely proud of the players because it’s not been an easy week either.

“We had a couple of players who had to drop out at the last minute and the players that came back into the team showed the right attitude.

“We played well in the first half and knew we would be tested every minute of the game by long balls into the box.

“We were disappointed to go in 2-1 down at half-time but we didn’t feel sorry for ourselves and I knew we would get opportunities.

“We defended with our lives and looked a constant threat whenever we got the ball as well.”

On-loan West Brom striker Morton followed up a Papa John’s Trophy hat-trick against Leicester Under-21s with his first league goal for Fleetwood.

The 21-year-old also had a hand in two other goals and Grayson added: “Callum’s work ethic is fantastic and he was a constant threat running off the shoulders of their defenders and with his hold-up play.”

Rotherham manager Paul Warne was displeased with an uncharacteristic lethargic display from his side.

He said: “We might have been leading at half-time but it wasn’t going to plan. Even in the first half, we were pretty poor.

“The opposition slowed the game down and we got sucked into playing really slowly. Players were walking to take throw-ins and we didn’t play with any drive, which is not like us at all.

“It was probably our worst performance of the season and the goals we conceded in the second half were hugely disappointing.

“I won’t single out individual performances but I know what went wrong and that’s between me and the players but I’ve told them I’m not best pleased and we’ve missed a really good opportunity to go joint second.”