Fleetwood Town Head Coach Joey Barton saw his side come out on the wrong side of a 1-0 loss on Saturday at home to AFC Wimbledon.
Barton – who took charge of his first league match as a manager – saw his side fall to defeat after Joe Piggot’s second half strike.
Bobby Grant hit the post late on from 30 yards, but it wasn’t to be for the Cod Army.
Here are Joey’s key quotes from his post-match press conference.
On the match…
“I thought it was a scrappy encounter. I never really thought we got to the level we have in pre-season, and that is the most disappointing thing.
“I can’t fault the lads for their efforts, endeavour and for their application and at the end of the day it is a game a football. Fair play to Wimbledon, who have obviously worked hard during the off-season, and they’ve come here and got a result.
“You need a bit of luck in football and I don’t know how Bobby Grant’s effort has hit the post and managed to stay out, however that is football. The most pleasing thing for me was that the lads kept going until the final whistle.
“If we can continue that over the course of the next 45 games, I’m sure we will be where we want to be at the end of the season.”
On the Wimbledon goalkeeper making several important saves…
“I think if you’re going to come away from home and win, you have to expect your goalkeeper to perform and as a unit, they have done well to keep a clean-sheet.
“The disappointing thing for us is that we could certainly have got our combinations going, which have been prolific in pre-season but I know we will come back in on Monday, review and reflect and upgrade.
“That is the moto in our building at Poolfoot Farm, we win or we learn and there will be a lot to take out from this game.”
On the positives in the game…
“Obviously we feel disappointed right now as we are still in the mist of it all. We wanted to go out today and give a good account of ourselves to the home fans and show just what we are going to be about this season.
“In spells I felt we shown that we are prepared to dig in and work hard, because today it didn’t always go our way and the most pleasing thing for me was the fitness levels. The lads carried on fighting and over a period of time, football will pay them back.”