Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton spoke after Town’s 2-0 home defeat at home to Rochdale in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday night.
Barton picked a youthful side against Keith Hill's Rochdale side, but came up short and have now picked up one point from two games in the group stage.
Jordan Williams and Andrew Cannon got the goals for Rochdale either side of half-time, with Town have chances of their own with forward Chris Long being denied by a wonderful block from Kgosi Nthle.
Here are the key quotes from Joey’s post-match interview…
On the game…
“I am really disappointed if I am being honest. There were lads who have been on the periphery of the first team and some lads who have been in the first team, alongside some younger lads who were keen to make an impression. They were tasked to put on a performance at our home ground and I thought we were far from our expected levels.
“They’ve had a great opportunity tonight to stake a claim for a first team place, and with the lads winning 4-0 at Doncaster on Saturday and a game against Shrewsbury on Saturday, you want lads to give you a selection headache.
“Tonight a lot of lads haven’t performance, so it’s a case of them dwelling on that for the next 24-48 hours. We’ve made changes tonight and I think Rochdale just wanted it more on the day.”
On moving forward and his preparation in this competition…
“I am not being disrespectful to the competition, but we have rotated in the games we have played. We have seen an opportunity to have a look at players on the periphery of the squad, and who are in and around the group, and also look at the younger players and blood them in.
“You know when you make those decisions early, give debuts to young academy products you don’t know, but Nathan Sheron has used it as a spring board to get into the first team.
“I am pleased with the progression of some of the young players and obviously you want to see that on the pitch as they have done it on the training ground, but for whatever reason, they haven’t performance. They will learn from this and hopefully that will allow them to fulfil their potential as it’s the lifeline of this football club.”
On Shrewsbury this weekend…
“We wanted to the lads to take on what happened at the weekend at Doncaster and obviously we lose that momentum, but the good thing I guess is that the starting eleven is wrapped up with us having three games within a week.
“There have been a lot of lads who have featured in all three against Barnsley, Wycombe and Doncaster and with those fixtures, it’s important we fill those energy tanks up for another vital three points on Saturday against Shrewsbury.”