Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton spoke to the media following his sides 2-1 defeat away at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon.
Despite Town having the majority of the possession, it was Bolton who took the lead through Chris O’Grady as he capitalised on a loose back pass to slot into the back of the net.
Daryl Murphy doubled Wanderers’ lead with just over ten minutes left in the first half, but the visitors grabbed a consolation goal with five minutes left, through Josh Morris’ fifth goal of the season.
Below are the key points from Barton’s post-match interview…
On the game...
“I have got to give credit to Bolton, they are fighting for their lives and ran hard and made it difficult for us.
“We have got to be cuter. We showed the lads what was going to happen and when we look back, we will see the areas where we didn’t execute our plan.
“I thought in the second half, we played almost the entirety of it in their half and we kept fighting.
“Scrapping and fighting is admirable for me, but don’t get yourself into a position when you are two goals down. We were fully aware that we had to be on our game, and unfortunately, we shot ourselves in the foot.
“It is not just the players that need to have a look at themselves, it is me as well, as the coach. I try to play attacking football everywhere, and maybe I need to adjust the strategy.”
On the away form…
“Our away form is killing us, you can’t give away goals that we have done at any level of football. It is becoming a common theme.
“I am a manager that likes to give young players chances and play in the right way. But, we are going to have to sit down and talk about how we do that.
“It is virtually every week away from home that we are talking about an individual error or giving the opposition a leg up and a chance to get into the game.
“We have to accept that. As frustrating it is, we need to get out on the training ground and iron out those mistakes.
“If we don’t do it soon, we are going to miss a glorious opportunity, because I feel as if this division is wide open.”
On the next game…
“There is a lot of hard work and things to do, but we know we are capable of it.
“At Barnet next week as we always do, I respect a response.”