Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton spoke to iFollow following his sides 1-0 victory over Championship side Preston North End on Friday evening.
Barton has seen his side more than match both Preston and Burnley this week, with there being many positives for the club to take forward into their opening match against Peterborough United.
Ash Hunter scored the only goal of the match, with Harry Souttar getting the assist having made a deep run from the heart of the Town defence.
Here is what Joey had to say after the match at Highbury…
On the match against Preston…
“It was a really good game, Preston are a physical, fit and well drilled team and we knew they were going to give us a good test and that is what we wanted this pre-season.
“We’ve now played two championship side, with a Premier League side earlier in the week and when you come out of with a few tweaks to make, it sets you up nicely for the League One season.
“In David Nugent and Jayden Stockley you know you’ll be in for a physical contest because they are top level players and performers, but I thought we dealt with that really well and for us to limit them to very few sights of goal, it’s very pleasing.
“First half we started well in the opening 15 minutes, and then get confused in terms of our positioning and there was some tactical naivety on our behalf but we addressed that and were superb in the second half, and unfortunate not to win by more with Dan Mooney’s chance.
“A clean sheet and a win at home. It builds us up nicely for that first game of the season.”
On Ash Hunter’s winning goal…
“Ash is one of those players who you love to watch, but there are times where he makes you want to pull your hair out, but he’s a player who gets the fans off their seats and he also does that to me.
“He is coming along nicely, and we know when he is on the pitch, things are going to happen. He tends to be at the fulcrum of the good things we do and we both know it’s going to be a big season for him to back up what he did last year.
“There’s competition for places in those areas of the pitch and that should keep him on his toes as we all know he has a lot of potential, and with the Nottingham Forest fixture coming up, that will keep him in the straight and narrow.”
On the injury picked up by Josh Morris…
“I honestly know but when you see players going down and getting stretchered off, it doesn’t particular look good but hopefully it is more out of precaution than everything else because you don’t want to lose anyone in pre-season. Fingers crossed it’s just a precaution, but we will know more in the next 24 hours.”