Fleetwood Town boss Joey Barton praises Paddy Madden for listening and learning

Evans has been absent since a red card in the 1-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers on February 11 but is now available for selection after serving his suspension.

Barton feels that the return of Evans will be a huge help, but credited Madden for his displays after stepping into the breach.

Barton said: “I had many, many conversations with Pad (Madden), we’ve had loads of chats about just because you turn a certain age doesn’t mean you can’t improve.

“What an attitude he’s got, somebody who was a proven goalscorer at this level before we got here.

“To have the humility to say ‘yeah, I want to get better,’ because we were saying to him ‘if you want to play in the Championship, this is what you need to improve.’

“He’s taken that on board and not only listened and worked hard on the training ground and interacted with the coaches and the information he’s getting, but he’s also tried to implement that on a matchday.

“I think, in the last three games, Paddy Madden has shown the outside world just what a good player he is and that he’s not just a goalscorer. His best years are in front of him, he’s going to be a better player the longer we go on.”

Town’s fine form of late has put them in the mix among the teams at the top end of League One.

Barton believes they can take heart from their recent matches against some of the division’s fancied sides.

He said: “You get less opportunities but I was watching the Championship on Wednesday, our game on Tuesday night (against Sunderland) was a Championship game.

“Our games against Portsmouth and Peterborough were Championship level games.

“You’ve got to earn the right to get there, if we win the games we need to win and we get there either through the automatics or winning the league, then we’ll deserve to be there.

“If we don’t, and we come up short, then we might get an extension to the season or we might miss out on the play-offs.

“Whatever you get after 46 games of hard toil, you don’t get there by luck.”