Callum Connolly the big bonus for Fleetwood boss Joey Barton

After Connolly’s unsuccessful spell at Lincoln City this season, Barton swooped to sign him last month.

Barton said of Saturday’s matchwinner and his other loan recruits: “I’d seen Callum play box-to box for Ipswich when he was on loan there and Bolton.

“Baz McKay is a superb player who lights games up, Lewis Gibson looks like a top-level player in the making if he keeps progressing and learning, and Glenn Whelan adds that experience and knowhow in the middle of the park but the added bonus has been Callum Connolly.

“It never quite worked out for him at Lincoln. He looked a little short of confidence when he first came in and we didn’t really know his best position.

“We thought he would give us versatility but every position he’s gone into, he’s just played better.

“He’s played left centre-half and was superb, then he flipped over to right centre-half and he was superb.

“He went into centre midfield and scored a goal against Peterborough last week.

“Then we pushed him into the number 10 role against Portsmouth to put pressure on Tom Naylor and give us a pressing platform, and he pops up with another.

“I might try him in goal next week and see how he does.

“He just plays anywhere and what a player to have in your team.

“I think Lewie Coyle is the same, but you can name five or six of our lads who can play in multiple positions and they keep giving everything for the team.

“It makes you incredibly proud as a head coach but it’s something we have to keep fostering and building because nobody expects us to do this, but we just keep rolling on week by week.

“You never know, we might shock the world.”

Versatility is a desirable trait for Barton and he feels that the business done in the winter window has set up the Cod Army for their promotion push.

Barton said: “Obviously you have to recruit better players and we managed to have a really good January which went under the radar.

“We thought we’d got superb business done, and as we approach March, you can see that Fleetwood really upgraded.

“That came from support from the chairman (Andy Pilley), but also lots of hard work behind the scenes from the analytics and recruitment departments.

“January for us was always going to be big, holding onto our key players and adding quality off the back of that, and trying to lose the sort of players who were not going to feature or impact it.

“It was tough. Conor McAleny and Ash Eastham were super professionals, great lads, and it’s never easy to move those kind of players on because they are really good people.

“But you have to when you have the financial constraints we have.”