Fleetwood Town boss Joey Barton was left frustrated on Tuesday night as his side dominated the game against second play Peterborough United.
After a narrow defeat against top of the league Portsmouth at the weekend, the same result went against Fleetwood at Peterborough on Tuesday, with Rhys Bennett scoring the only goal in a tight 1-0 win for the Posh.
Town dominated possession at the ABAX Stadium and with Barton, the players will have left Cambridgeshire frustrated that they’ve come away with nothing, but there are plenty of positive to take into the Fylde Coast derby at the weekend.
Here are the key quotes from Joey Barton’s post-match interview…
On the game…
“I thought we were miles better than where we were on Saturday and again I am stood here scratching my head wondering how we haven’t managed to take at least a point. Anyone in the stadium would have to say that but it’s very frustrating.
“We are a side in progress, we are a side who have lost four games 1-0 out of the five with Barnsley being the other result. If that team and Saturday’s opposition are first and second, we aren’t a million miles away.
“Saturday was a game where the two cancelled each other out, but tonight I thought was a fantastic advertisement for League One football with the game being end to end.
“The most frustrating thing for me is that we have conceded from a set-play at a similar time to when we did at the weekend. Very disappointing to give away those goals.
On the positives…
“My players coped with the occasion and in spells we were the only side looking to play football and tonight we knocked it around well and maybe could have been more composed in certain areas of the pitch.
“The lads were brave, especially away at a side who are second in the table and when you get the ball down and play, especially in the second half of the game when we were chasing the game and that resulted in us putting a lot of pressure on Peterborough.
“We are moving forward nicely, and I know when we get our strongest eleven on the pitch in the shape we want to play, we will win a lot of games of football. Ched did well tonight with Paddy out, and Chris Long was very good despite being subbed off in recent weeks, and he showed flashes of the player he can be.
“I am seeing where we could be in this league, but it is the picture that is becoming ever clearer of where we want to be!”
On challenging at the top…
“I really do believe we can challenge at the top. Sometimes you have to get in a scrap with them to realise where you are and for me I don’t think this squad was there last year.
“We aren’t a million miles away and we need to be clever about how we go about it. We have played everybody in the top six and I know we feel that we can gate crash that group.
“Yes we need to be a bit cuter at times, but also there isn’t a massive gulp between the two sides. It’s a division where there’s fine margins between the sides and this season we have already seen we can blow teams away.
“We need to be more consistent, but I thought tonight we came out like a stream train and looked the more aggressive side.”