Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton spoke to the media following his teams 2-1 victory away at AFC Wimbledon at Kingsmeadow.
Fleetwood made it back to back wins for the first time since September thanks to goals from Ched Evans and Paddy Madden. The Welshman opened the scoring early in the first half, with the Irishman scoring his 18th of the season with a close range finish.
After a battling performance in South West London, here is what Barton had to say…
On the game…
“We are really pleased with the results, especially after a number of frustrating draws and desperate to get that win and like a London bus, we got ourselves two wins with the first being against Doncaster Rovers.
“It’s always nice to win football games and I know that we can play much better than how we played today and that is a sign of a really good team. When you aren’t at full capacity, you find a way of winning and picking up maximum points.”
On the defending from his side…
“Our defenders were fully examined today, especially the 19,21 and 22-year-olds at the back. Wimbledon works us hard like we knew they would and we knew they were going to test us physically and also from set-plays.
“We had to stand up and be counted. As I said, we knew what was coming and I am really pleased to see two young centre-halves grow with the physicality. Lewis (Gibson) only played his second ever league game and a lot of balls came down his channel, which he dealt with. He was outstanding and got better and better as the game went on.”
On the front two, Madden and Evans…
“All strikers go through spells where things don’t happen to them, but for it to happen to both Ched and Paddy at the same time, it was frustrating and that’s ultimately why we didn’t win as many games as possible over the last few months.
“Usually it’s one of those who finds the ways of getting the ball in the back of the net when the other isn’t firing, but we have suffered. To see Ched score last week meant one of our two strikers was up and running again, but to then see Paddy score today, I think it’s great to see. We have players no who can come off the bench and make an impact, and that was the difference today.”