Joey Barton has given his reaction after his side lost to Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon at Highbury.
The Cod Army led at half-time against the league leaders, but lost 5-2 as Pompey took advantage of an extra man after Dean Marney was sent off after 52 minutes.
See what Joey had to say on the match in his post-match interview below…
On the result…
“We got in at half-time and we’ve got all the momentum. We’re 2-1 up and we are looking like we are going to go on and win the game. Dean Marney gets a second yellow, he’s got to know better, he’ll know that. That puts us down to ten men for 40 odd minutes again, and against the good sides, it’s not ideal. Then we concede two goals, a little bit of ill-discipline giving away the penalty and then we concede right afterwards.
“I must, must stress this to the lads as we almost got back in the game, Paddy Madden has got a great header which hits the inside of the post and that comes out, James Wallace gets the rebound and he hits the inside of the other post and it comes out. It’s moments like that when you realise it’s probably not going to be your day.
“For me there are a lot of positives to take out of it. I can’t fault the lads, to a man, they stuck at it, dug in for each other and we’re a proper team, so it’ll come but it’ll take time as we know, we’re working hard.
“But I’m not too disappointed in the performance today, because except the two moments which are very much out of character, you know, we probably would’ve gone on to win the game.”
Joey on Madden and Evans partnership growing...
“We talk about it all the time. If you stay in the game those lads will get goals for you, not only the goals but the work for the team is first class. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but as I say they’re the team sitting top of the division, so they have to be the benchmark for everybody.
“We know we’ve got a lot of hard work to do. But we also know our standing and standard in the league.”
On the upcoming fixture vs Shrewsbury on New Year’s Day…
“We’ve got no other choice (to bounce back), fill the tanks back up and get ready to go and give another performance against a Shrewsbury side that have picked up a good result today, away at Sunderland.”