Joey Barton has given his thoughts after his side won 1-0 at Accrington Stanley on Saturday afternoon.
Harry Souttar’s 50th minute header proved to be the difference at the Wham Stadium, in a lively Lancashire derby.
See below Joey’s key quotes from his post-match interview…
On the win…
“I thought we were excellent, some really good stuff in the first half. I thought we played some really, really good football in some passages of play. Probably a shade unfortunate not to go in comfortably leading at half time, albeit on a difficult pitch.
“Disappointed we haven’t won by three or four, because we’ve had chances to put the game beyond any doubt.
“As with it being 1-0 it always gives them a chance as they can lump the ball and load the box, but I thought our handling of the last twenty minutes as a team showed real maturity and I thought we were superb in lots of passages.”
On Harry Souttar’s winning goal…
“I’ve been speaking to the coaches this week about the fact we haven’t scored for a while from a corner and we look a potent threat from it. We worked on a couple of things in terms of simplifying each routine.
“Big Soutts [Harry Souttar] scored five unbelievable headers in training yesterday from different corners and you have that moment and think I hope he hasn’t left them on the training ground.
“Credit to Ross Wallace, who puts the ball on the money and the big man has got the desire to get on the end of it and that caps a lovely week for him.”
On playing at Accrington under pressure from the playoff hopes…
“Fighting against a team that are a good side, they’ve got games in hand that will probably nudge them up the table a little bit but coming here you know it’s going to be a difficult game.
“The pitch is the same for both teams, it probably hurts them as much as it hurts us because they’ve got some good footballers.
“The reality of it is, good players can play on anything and I said that to the lads before the game. It was a different test for us and one I thought we came through with a distinction.”
On the fans…
“It was great to see. It’s massive, I was so proud of them and went over at the end. Just seeing them cheer the team on and that’s the gauntlet thrown down now. If they can do that at Accrington today then hopefully they are like that for the rest of the season, because I’m telling you now that makes a difference for the players.”