VICTORIOUS Fleetwood Town chief Steven Pressley thought that the margin of his team’s Town thrashing this afternoon could have been even greater than the crushing 5-1 defeat they inflicted on Martin Ling’s men.

An unfortunate Adam El-Abd own goal opened up the floodgates at Highbury Stadium and the Cod Army marched on with ruthless endeavour, with Antoni Sarcevic netting from the penalty spot before Tariqe Fosu, David Henen and Bobby Grant all got themselves in on the scoresheet.

Pressley, who only took over as Fleetwood boss in October, was left purring by his team’s display, even if he was slightly irked by Nicky Ajose’s consolation effort.

“It was an outstanding result and an outstanding performance – I think since I’ve come to the club; that was our most complete performance,” said the Fleetwood manager, whose troops moved out of the relegation zone and above Town following their emphatic win.

“I spoke last week about the level of our performance but that was two games in a week against top opposition and really a performance over the course of 45 minutes.

“I thought today’s performance was a performance over the course 90 minutes. We played with such intensity, such purpose, and a lot of belief and we were really exciting to watch today.

“I know the game was 5-1 but the reality was that it could have been nine or 10 today. I think when the supporters come, they have to see us play with that real intent so I was so delighted.

“The only downside for me was that we lost the goal.

“I said that in the dressing room after the game; we have to keep driving standards. It has to be 5-0, not 5-1, but I’ll settle for the win and wins, as I’ve said, give you confidence but I think the manner of the win will give our players a great deal of confidence.

“The goal finally came but we had three or four one v one opportunities. We work on things on the training ground but I’ve said to the players before that when we get out there, they have to carry out the gameplan and they carried it out perfectly today.

“They deserve great, great credit for that today.”