Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton spoke to the media following his sides 3-2 defeat away at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday afternoon.
In what was an entertainment match at the Keepmoat Stadium, Town found themselves ahead thanks to a cute header from Conor McAleny. However two goals before half-time saw the home side go into the break one goal ahead.
Paddy Madden was introduced at the interval and made an instant impact scoring from close range, but a late error from Town’s point of view gave Darren Moore’s side all three points.
Here is what Joey Barton had to say after the game:
On the match….
“It’s really frustrating. We have basically thrown the points away because throughout we were the better side. We had the better of the chances but just didn’t convert them at key moments in the game.
“We still managed to score two goals but just like on Tuesday night, we have missed guilt edge chances that you have to put away at this level of football.
“It was great to see Conor [McAleny] get off the mark as I think he has been doing everything bar scoring goals this season and now lets hope that gets him up and running for the campaign. He had a bit of a chest infection this week so his playing time was limited, but he put in an incredible performance.
“Then Paddy Madden does what he does best and gets that goal to put us back in the game, but then having watched the reply (when Town thought they had scored) the ball hits the post, then the inside, then rolls across the line for the keeper to make a good reaction to pull lit away but unfortunately we don’t have goal line technology at this level. If we score at that moment, it’s straight forward but Doncaster kept plugging away and get their goal at the end.”
On taking the positives into Tuesday game against Wycombe…
“Yes there were many positives, but we have to learn to keep that back door closed and that is the reality. We have enough attacking threat going forward to cause teams lots of problems, but also we need to be able to see out a game.
“Whether we are at 2-2 or at 0-0, we need to learn but I am really disappointed for the lads today because they worked tirelessly to get themselves back into the game – but have come away with nothing.
“There are still a lot of games to play in this league, and the reality kicks in as we have got a tough fixture at home on Tuesday night to Wycombe and there is no time to feel sorry for ourselves.”
On bouncing back….
“I’d rather us not get beat, so it would have been nice to go into the home fixture with the win and momentum, but as I have said, there is no point feeling sorry as this division is one that rewards that and this is football, so let’s learn from our mistakes ahead of Wycombe.”