Fleetwood boss Matt Lawlor hails 'unbelievably special' win over Premier League champions Arsenal

Fleetwood boss Matt Lawlor had to hold in his emotions after watching his League Two strugglers shock Premier League champions Arsenal in one of the biggest upsets the League Cup has ever seen.

Nineteen-year-old defender Conor Haughey rifled home the winning penalty after Jay Lynch had denied £75million man Bruno Guimaraes from the spot in a dramatic shoot-out at the end of a 1-1 draw which saw Arsenal’s 16-year-old star Max Dowman dismissed.

Fleetwood are down in 18th place in League Two, hovering just above the drop zone, but they are now into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup after beating a side 84 places above them in the standings, last season’s Champions League finalists.

For Lawlor, who hails from just down the road in Poulton-le-Fylde and spent nine years as player with Bamber Bridge, it was a night he will never forget less than a year into his managerial career.

“I was trying to not cry and I didn’t,” said the 38-year-old, who was captain during his stint at Irongate. “I’ve managed to hold it. My family, my little boy here, we’re all local.

“I was turning around and people were screaming at me in the crowd and people that I knew and grew up with, that I went to school with or they’ve got a loose connection and people that jumped out on to the pitch and people that knew me.

“Obviously that’s really special and really emotional. To do something that special early in my career as well.”

Lawlor left his role with Fleetwood’s academy to keep their sister club Waterford in the League of Ireland last season, then returned to Fleetwood and took over as manager initially on an interim basis in January, with his appointment made permanent in March.

“It’s been an emotional build-up as much as people and I died it down,” he added.

“The champions of England are coming to our home turf and Matt Lawlor, who a year ago wasn’t even a football manager in January, has gone and achieved something like that with the team. So I’m really proud and really emotional.”

The League Cup has often struggled for relevance in recent seasons, but a result like this has once again made it headline news – and Lawlor hopes it will go down as one of the best stories of the season.

“Football’s getting a little bit more, I don’t know, clinical and removed,” he said. “And that to me, there was that feeling that we all get as football fans. That was what you kind of live for, isn’t it?

“To be a part of it is special. To be giving that to football fans and especially Fleetwood fans is unbelievably special.”

Only three days earlier Fleetwood went to Exeter and lost 2-1, their sixth defeat in nine in all competitions leaving them only two points above League Two’s drop zone.

Once all the fanfare of Tuesday’s historic success dies down, Bristol Rovers will visit Highbury on Saturday with the Fishermen in dire need of three points.

“I want us to carry the momentum forward,” Lawlor added. “I want that feeling that we’ve created here to be something that we can recreate on a regular basis.”