Maxwell Pleased By Fleetwood Debut

It’s been a long time coming for goalkeeper Chris Maxwell, but in the game against Wycombe Wanderers he finally made his debut for the club having had to wait for nearly two years.

23 year old Maxwell became our first signing of the summer following our promotion back in May 2012 and since he’s been with us he has had loan spells at back at former club Wrexham and Cambridge in the Conference Premier but he was still yet to pull on his gloves in a proper competitive fixture for us until last night.

Speaking to the BBC following the game, he explained.

‘It’s been a tough road but I’m glad to have finally made my debut. It’s finally good to get a game. It’s been 18 months of patience and being in and out of Fleetwood at various clubs on loan.’

Prior to the draw last night, Scott Davies has been an ever present, but Alexander decided to shake things up and picked Maxwell ahead of our 26 year old number one, and Chris – as above – was clearly delighted with that, and he knows the confidence boost it was meant to be for him because Davies is an excellent stopper, so even if he doesn’t make the next game between the sticks, that boost will help him improve further himself and in turn push Scott even harder when it comes to his own form.

Alexander himself explained that he’s talked previously about the requirement for competition in every area of the pitch but with Maxwell spending the first part of the season out at Cambridge, where he played 24 games for them, keeping 16 clean sheets, Davies hasn’t had that competition, so now he back he felt it was a good time to give Davies a rest, and give Maxwell a boost following his performances out on loan.

‘We had a couple of offers for Chris in January but we wanted to keep him to give us that competition. He deserves his chance and I thought he did well.’

Shaking things up occasionally can’t be sniffed at, and it’s a good message to both the keepers about working hard and pushing each other. Too many clubs don’t give their No 2 or 3 a chance and that cannot create proper competition for places, so switching things around should help keep both of them on their toes which will benefit them, and us.