Micky Mellon hailed a battling Fleetwood performance after the home side survived more than an hour with 10 men to beat Aldershot 4-1.
Midfielder Junior Brown put Fleetwood ahead after 25 minutes but minutes later the home side were reduced to ten men, Dean Howell judged to have handled on the line.
Fleetwood keeper Scott Davies looked on top form when he saved Josh Payne's penalty but Aldershot were level before the break, Craig Reid's shot finding the back of the net.
Ten-man Fleetwood regained the lead two minutes into the second half when captain Steve McNulty headed home and, after Payne saw red for the Shots, Brown's second and Andy Mangan's strike wrapped up an impressive victory for Fleetwood.
Mellon said: "It was a really special performance from us. With 11 men we were fantastic and then we conceded the penalty and went down to ten men which was a big blow for us because we had a long way to go then.
"We moved into a training session which we do every day on the training ground where were on the back foot, with a bit of an overload and, with the pace we've got, we thought we could take them on the break. It was our day and we were able to do that. We needed our subs to get us through that long 45 minutes, but we're delighted with the victory."
