Fleetwood head coach Joey Barton spoke to the press ahead of Saturday’s Fylde Coast derby match against Blackpool at Highbury Stadium.
Town will face The Seasiders at the weekend and after two away trips to Portsmouth and Peterborough, with the Cod Army looking forward to a return home.
Terry McPhillips has seen his side go on an eleven match unbeaten run, with their latest result being a 1-0 victory over Scunthorpe United at Bloomfield Road on Tuesday night.
Below are the key quotes from Joey’s pre-match press conference…
On the big match against Blackpool…
“This is my first experience of this derby and even though I have played in many over the years, and I am really looking forward to this one as there are local bragging rights at stake.
“I remember playing against Blackpool not so long ago in the Premier League, but both teams meet on Saturday on equal teams and I for one are looking forward to the contest, and so should everybody who attends the match at Highbury.
“It is a derby and who knows what to expect as people say it will be a 0-0 draw, but then it could be a blowout one way or the other, or a team thinks they’ll win and it goes the other way. It will come down to who deals with the occasion the best.”
On the derby matches he has featured in…
“Every derby match has something different about them and when I look at the derbies I have played in, I have played in the Manchester derby, the Glasgow derby which was certainly hostile, and also Newcastle versus Sunderland which was also intense.
“Burnley versus Blackburn surprised me with how spicy that one was so all of these games are what they are and when you look at the club’s, their derbies are the most important ones and I don’t think there’s a derby match that means more than others as you go into work on the Monday morning taking the micky out of your pals until the next time you meet.”
On the fine margins in recent games…
“There is are fine margins but if the score is 1-0, 5-0, 10-0, you lose the match and we know there are three points available whenever we take to the field, and if you don’t come away with those points, you should always come away disappointed. That is the way I think and the good thing about this league is that there is one around the corner and we go to try and win that one.
“I want to see us win games of football and on the back of two defeats, we have an opportunity to put that right on Saturday.
“I don’t care whether it is first away or second away, we should be capable of winning those games and even on Tuesday night, I thought we were much better versions of ourselves compared to the Portsmouth game.
“We have conceded two goals from set pieces, but against Peterborough we created more opportunities when we were in the ascendancy, and in this league if you get that first goal – like we have seen this season, it tends to lead to positivity, but we do need to be more consistent.”