Fleetwood Town boss Joey Barton spoke to the media at Poolfoot Farm on Thursday morning ahead of this weekend’s home match against Scunthorpe United.
Fleetwood Town welcome Stuart McCall’s Irons to Highbury on Saturday and after the two sides met earlier in the season, the Cod Army will be hoping for a similar performance to which saw them win 5-0 at Glanford Park.
Barton’s men won in midweek at AFC Wimbledon, and the team will be looking for back to back wins in the league for the first time since October.
Here’s what he had to say ahead of the game…
On Fleetwood’s most recent form…
“To perform in the manner that we did on Tuesday night was pleasing, and I think we exercised a little bit of our demons from a disappointing result in the FA Cup. It would be nice to stay unbeaten in the calendar year, but we have made a decent start to it and we did have a couple of results where we came away thinking we could have played a little bit better and taken more points.
"I have to say in the last two performances – especially the first 45 minutes at Rochdale and the 90 minutes on Tuesday showed some really pleasing signs about what we are trying to do and where we are trying to go.”
On the match against Scunthorpe…
“We’ve got a tough game against Scunthorpe at home, they have done well since Stuart McCall came in and we will have to be on our best performance to make sure we take maximum points at home.
“Scunthorpe are a side who have had a pick up – unbeaten in their last five games – and yes we have beaten them comfortably, but we know if we execute our game plan right, we know we will cause them lots of problems.
“I am looking forward to the challenge ahead at Highbury and if we give the best version of ourselves, we will get three points.
“They (Scunthorpe) will be hurting on the back of the last result, but it was a long time ago and things have changed at their football club. It’s always nice to get a result, as Wimbledon beat us twice earlier in the season but we did well going there and beating them in the manner that we did, because we felt we were far superior to them, despite the loss at home.”
On the teams competing for a higher finish…
“Teams in this division are closely matched and we’ve already played them this season but have since changed manager, so at home will be definitely be looking to beat them and that is our challenge to get a run together to lead us in a good position come may.
“We’ve got a ‘no slip up’ policy if we want to go where we want to go and it’s important that we are efficient between now and the end of the season. If you can string a run of results together, you can find yourself propelled up the table.
“There’s a little group in and around the play-offs, and for us it is important we stay at the top of that group and try and crawl back the sides who are up their looking for promotion.”
On the squad and potential injuries…
“The squad is fine, James Wallace took a slight knock but he is fine, and I think because he is a player who is all action, and always in the mix of things, he will get knocks.
“Wallace is becoming a really important player for us on and off the pitch. He’s probably on his best run of games for six or seven years, and that is credit to him and the medical staff at the football club for keeping him in the physical condition that he is in. There’s no doubt about his ability as if he was fitter and played more games, he wouldn’t be in League One.
“As a young player he was in and around the Everton first team, so we all know the ability that he has got, it’s just nice to see him get a run of games for us.”