Town striker Muskwe returns from injury to score two in two for Fleetwood

Town striker Admiral Muskwe was relieved to be back on the scoring trail straight away for Fleetwood Town after finally recovering from a spate of injuries that forced him to spend three months on the sidelines.

The 24-year-old moved to the Cod Army on loan back in September, as he looked to get some regular first team football, and netted on his debut in a 1-1 draw with Wycombe Wanderers.

He featured a further six times, before missing a large chunk of the campaign, finally back as a second half substitute for the 2-1 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day.

Muskwe also came off the bench in the 2-1 defeat to Barnsley, winning a penalty which he tucked away to make it 1-1, Robbie Cundy’s powerful header winning it late on for the hosts.

The ex-Leicester City youngster was then in from the start at Shrewsbury on New Year's Day and found the net again with 25 minutes gone, netting his second spot-kick in successive matches as the visitors eased to a 3-0 success.

On finally being back and available again, he told the club’s official website: “I have been out for three months and I have been itching to get back on the pitch.

"It was my hamstring that went first so I was meant to be out for six weeks, and then I had another issue, so I was out for a further six weeks.

“No player wants to get injured; they want to be playing on Saturday and Tuesday, playing 90 minutes and helping the team.

“As a forward myself, my job is to try to score and create goals and when I am unable to do that, I am itching to do that.

"When you get into a situation where you can contribute, it helps massively, and I hope it continues.”

When asked about assuming the responsibility from the spot against the Shrews, following a handball in the area that saw home defender Matthew Pennington sent off, he continued: “Obviously, you want to start the New Year off with a win, so we started as we mean to go on so to get the three points, score three goals and to send our fans home happy.

“I think with the red card, there was some build up on what was going to happen in my head with the kick, but I am always wary that the team and the goalkeeper are going to try and play games.

"So if I know what I am going to do, I will just stick with that and never let anything change my mind.

“You just have to block it out, block it out completely.

"They’re just trying to get in your head and if you allow it, they’re one up and then you become hesitant taking the penalty, so it was a matter of blanking it out and focusing on what I need to do and thankfully, it came off.

“It’s always good to score in front of the travelling fans and then to celebrate with them after the win."

Picking up such an impressive victory on the road was a big boost for Fleetwood, who are now 13th in the table, as Muskwe said: “In football, you see a lot of times when you play a team and they’ve gone down to ten men, you change your game plan as you know you have an extra player, you start to dilly dally on the ball and start taking extra touches.

“We didn’t do that and we made sure our 11 men did their jobs.

“We were very good for the first 15-20 minutes so there was no need to change what we were doing and it’s great that we managed to get the three points.

“At half-time it was 2-0, and the gaffer (Scott Brown) mentioned the scoreline and at that stage it was a little iffy.

"We knew their manager would have given his players a little bit so it was important we didn’t let them score as it can make you shaky.

“We just said we need to shut up shop for the first 10-15 minutes of the second half, and then work our way back into the game.

"Play smart and win fouls here and there and just be cute, and then from there we got the third goal.”

Cod Army boss Scott Brown added: “We bullied them in the first 15-20 minutes, we wanted to go long and a bit direct which isn’t like us to do that, but we did what they did to us at our place.

"I think we showed the strength in our squad as well today, so I’m delighted for the lads.”

“I’m delighted for Hayesy (Cian Hayes) and Promise (Omochere), and to have Admiral back was good as well as we had a fresh front three for today’s game which gave us a lot of energy.

"The lads that have been playing are fantastic players but sometimes you just need a bit of change.”

Fellow Luton attacker Carlos Mendes Gomes, who is also on loan with the Cod Army, started against Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley, coming on for the final stages at Shrewsbury, as he has now played 20 times this season, scoring six goals.