Fleetwood boss Joey Barton on Sunderland: I never thought I'd say it but they have my sympathy now

But as a staunch campaigner for the league season to be completed on the field, Barton’s sympathies would extend to the Black Cats if they were among the “losers” from a decision to end the campaign early.

The clubs are due to vote this week on whether to scrap all outstanding fixtures except the play-offs, and Barton admits he also understands the viewpoint of clubs who don’t wish to play on.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Football Show, Barton said: “I’d prefer to finish the campaign. We’ve been quite vocal about that from the start.

“We’d had one defeat in 17, unbeaten in 12, and had been away to every side who had a chance of winning the league. We had to play nine games, six of those were in the bottom 10, three against the bottom three.

“You’d argue Bolton and Southend were already down and probably only Tranmere fighting for survival there, so we felt like we had a shot at the automatics. We were two points behind (second-placed) Rotherham, with them to play at home.

“We’re disappointed but we will get a chance with a play-off situation and I do feel sorry for Sunderland – I never thought I’d say that!

“I feel a bit aggrieved for Gillingham, Doncaster and even Ipswich because they all would have had a legitimate shot at a play-off place. Peterborough are a very good side but it looks like if they do a points system they will miss out (on the top six), and Wycombe will jump in with Oxford, Portsmouth and ourselves.”

It has been reported that most League One clubs do not share Fleetwood’s desire to play on and Barton said of that: “I think there are a lot of factors. They don’t have much ambition to play on because they don’t have much to play for and that’s understandable.

“They’ve got no crowds in, which is a huge part of the revenue streams for those types of clubs.

“They’ve obviously now got a government-backed furlough scheme, where they can recoup a percentage of the salaries while the crowds aren’t in. The likes of Accrington and Rochdale “Bolton almost went out of business too and you can understand them wanting to protect their football clubs because of the impact those clubs have on the local community.

“I’m not here to tell anybody they should do one thing or another, but I would say you start the season with the aim of playing the 46 games and I think you should adhere to that.

“If we’re not careful, we might not have football clubs to come back to, so we’ve got to find the balance between what is right for everybody but also what is right for the integrity of the competition.

“I think it’s important to finish the competition if we start it.”

What is clear is that points-per-game would create “winners and losers”.

Barton added: “I think Tranmere will be aggrieved going into League Two next season. Sunderland, Peterborough and a few other sides will be aggrieved.

“The winners will probably be Wycombe in that scenario and Rotherham have won the Lottery getting second (place) because I think they had six of the top 10 to play in the last period.

“So it’s not fair for a lot of sides, but on the other side this is a global pandemic and we have to resolve it one way or another.”