Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton spoke to the media following his sides goalless draw with Bristol Rovers in the final match of 2019.
Barton's side thought they had taken the lead with over 20 minutes left on the clock after Ched Evans fired the ball home, but the goal was disallowed due to Paddy Madden being in an offside position.
Fleetwood were dominate in all areas of the field at Highbury and had many chances to go and win the game, but there was late drama with Tom Nichols' effort bounced up onto the crossbar after Alex Cairns denied Jonson Clarke-Harris' first attempt.
A share of a points it was for Town and Bristol Rovers, and here is what Barton had to say after the match:
On the match…
“We’ve won many games here when we haven’t played well and today the lads were superb in everything they did and all we needed was that goal to show for it.
“We needed that first goal today and we did go close on many occasions and for that we have to give credit to Bristol Rovers. They sat in a low block for most of the game and defended their goal admirably – but the one time we did manage to put the ball in the back of the net, the officials conspired to rule it out.
“Despite that, we created a lot of chances and had opportunities to win two football matches, but what I have said to the lads is that it is nice to get the clean sheet with Alex Cairns’ return into the team with them only having one or two chances.
“They had one chance that hit the crossbar and on another day, that goes in so from that regard we are happy with the clean sheet. The lads were so good to good today, the football we played was great and I enjoyed it before I was ejected.”
“We are in a great spot and there were lots of positives to take away from the game today.”
On the disallowed goal…
“I have watched it back now multiple times and I am surprised it has been ruled out.
“I don’t know what goes on these days with referees. We don’t have VAR or a monitor to go and look back at stuff, but we have to accept it and move on.
“It’s frustrating as we have worked incredibly hard today and one call wasn’t made but that human error is something that you get in football.”
On the performance and moving forward…
“We played well against Rotherham and probably should have won. Then we won at Rochdale and should have won today against Bristol Rovers so it’s really good signs, especially being four unbeaten.
“We want to win more games obviously, but we are now just starting to show just what a good side we are at this point in the season. The table doesn’t lie anymore and as a team, we are moving in the right direction. The key is that we need to put teams to the sword when we are so much better than them.”