Pete Wild was encouraged by Fleetwood’s display in his first game in charge against Harrogate.
Wild had to settle for a 1-1 draw in his debut having replaced Charlie Adam as boss, after Phoenix Patterson saw a last-minute penalty saved by James Belshaw.
James Bolton had fired Fleetwood into a second-minute lead before Josh March headed in an equaliser shortly after.
Wild said: “To go a goal up so early on was really pleasing.
“Once you start well you want to get in the opposition’s face and I think we did that.
“The game plateaued out after that, every game plateaus out. And we’re really disappointed with the set-piece that we conceded, because we talked about Harrogate, and how they will probably want to try and play for set-pieces and to concede was frustrating.
“One thing I would say is that when this squad has been punched in the face they’ve not reacted in the best way. So, it was really good to see the squad react in a positive way and really keep driving forward to try and get us back in the lead.
“We’ve had six or seven unbelievable opportunities today, and we’ve got into some great areas, played some really good football.
“I understand that we need to be better in the final third and we need to take our chances – that’s clear, we can all see that. People wanted us to come here and excite the crowd and play front-footed football. I think we’ve done that today.
“We’ve got some top players at this football club with a real good balance and we have to utilise them and move them in the right direction.
“We feel that we’ve got a lot of the tools here. We just need to bring them all together now and move them in the right direction.”
Harrogate manager Simon Weaver was delighted to take a point home after five straight defeats in December.
“I thought the point was the least we deserved,” he said.
“With a penalty in the last few minutes and with the run we’ve been on, it would have been bitterly disappointing to have lost a game that I thought we performed well in.
“In the last three games now, I think we’ve shown up well against tough opponents and we’re showing that we’re trying to do things the right way, trying to pass the ball and play our way through and, at times we did create some good opportunities that, with a bit more confidence, we normally dispatch.
“But today was about stopping the rot and I’m proud of my players. We know that Fleetwood are a lively, youthful team and you look at the credentials of their midfield, there’s a lot of League One games between them, they were in League One last year.
“It was all about resilience today and showing that we can bounce back. Big players come with big moments and that’s what happened with Belly (Belshaw). We’re down to the bare bones but we stick together.
“You learn a lot about people when you’re up against it and the odds are against you but we like to prove people wrong by sticking together and it’s about pals bailing out other pals if something goes wrong in a game. A point was the least we deserved.”
