Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton spoke after his side’s 4-0 win over Everton U21s at Goodison Park on Tuesday night.
With victory, the Cod Army become the first team through to the last 16 of the Leasing.com Trophy, after an impressive evening at Goodison Park.
Goals from Danny Andrew, Paul Coutts, Paddy Madden and Wes Burns ensured it was a great performance on Merseyside, with Fleetwood making it three straight victories in all competitions.
Below are the key quotes from Joey’s post-match interview:
On the game and the result…
“It was a great performance. I thought in the first half we were guilty of playing at their tempo at times and not at our own and that’s what I spoke about at half-time.
“I wanted the players to lift it to see if Everton could compete with us and the score line shows that it wasn’t possible for them.
“For Everton, tonight will be a great learning experience and that is what the competition is for, and on the flip side for us, we are in it and with the strong squad we have this season.
“It allows us to use it as an opportunity to players who haven’t played much in the league campaign some minute. Six changes we made before and players also came on with Kyle Dempsey and Paddy Madden, and those two gave real impetus to our performance.
“We looked a threat when the ball was in transition and looked like we would score on every attack and in the last twenty minutes, it was good to see the hard work we’ve put in pay off.”
On the second half and the quality in front of goal…
“In the first half the lads were half a yard away from where we needed them to be. We adjusted that and in the second half, the lads put on a performance and deservedly progress into the next round.
“Players in the front line have got themselves on the scoresheet and with Wes, he has another goal to his name which will without a doubt help his confidence.
“With Paddy, he can’t stop scoring at the minute and with 14 goals to his name already this season, it’s great season and a challenge for others to catch him up.
“Paddy scores goals when he comes off the bench and when he starts and probably a frustration for him and myself is that he is a huge impact when coming off the bench, especially in the last 30 minutes and we’ve challenged him about his overall game, and he is really working hard and that is credit to him.
“With Danny’s goal, it was meant to be worked on the other side of the pitch for him to try and get his first of the season, but it was worked well to Danny who showed his quality.”
On the clean sheet….
“I am delighted for the clean sheet. Jimmy Dunne and Peter Clarke were outstanding against Oumar Niasse, who I have seen play and ruff up Premier League centre-halves and cause them problems.
“Jimmy is a young defender who is learning his trade, and Clarkey is very experience and like me, an Evertonian and it was great to come here and win, but it would be nice to come here in the FA Cup Third Round.”