Joey Barton has given his reaction to Fleetwood Town’s Emirates FA Cup defeat to AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.
Kwesi Appiah’s 88th minute strike saw The Dons progress, despite Fleetwood coming from two goals down to level the tie thanks to Paddy Madden and a Ched Evans penalty.
Here is what Barton had to say after the defeat….
On the game….
“I felt it was a strange game in terms of being done on the counter attack three times. We’ve been the better side for long periods of the game and we’ve just given away three poor goals, and now we find ourselves out of the cup.
“It’s frustrating when you switch off late in the game, especially when we had three players in the area and they had one, and it’s just a lump into the box and fair play to the lad, he gives Alex Cairns no chance.
“Despite that, we still created four or five opportunities to take the lead in the match, but for me I am disappointed for the lads because they got themselves back into the game. We had momentum and were pressing on to win the game.
“There were a few moments where we could have been more discipline, but credit to Wimbledon – who had four shots at goal and scored three of them. We need to get ourselves back to the training ground.”
On the harsh end to the game…
“Football is a cruel game and sometimes you don’t get what you deserve and as I have said, we need to be a little bit cuter as I felt there were strange decisions from players within.
“At critical times in the game when players are tired and fatigued, it’s all good and well trying to win the game, and being the only side looking to go and win the game, it’s important that you don’t get hit on the counter.
“We switched off and we are now out of the FA Cup.”
On the week ahead…
“You win or you learn and we have a lot of learning to do. I think it’s made a few decisions clearer in my mind about how we move forward as a group and a club, I have been thinking about a few things, and today was just the final underlining.
“The transfer window is now open and we have to be shrewd in how we shuffle the pack because if we are serious about building a team to move forward here, we have to recruit the right types for that.”