Joey Barton's reaction to Fleetwood Town's 1-0 defeat at Southend

It was a case of no plane, trains and stomach bugs in the build up to Fleetwood Town's 1-0 defeat to Southend United.
Fleetwood Town boss BartonFleetwood Town boss Barton
Fleetwood Town boss Barton

Town had planned to fly down for the clash at Roots Hall on Friday but due to the windy weather conditions their FlyBe flight was cancelled.

That lead to a mad rush for a train to the South then the club have also been hit by a stomach bug that saw left-back James Husband miss the clash.

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Chris Long missed the game due to a hamstring tweak and Conor McAleny (hamstring) also missed out.

Cian Bolger's error lead to Theo Robinson teeing up Simon Cox for the Southend goal in the 53rd minute.

James Wallace saw red for a second bookable offence in injury time.

But Barton would not use the travel issues, injuries or the illnesses to his camp as an excuse for not getting at least a point.

He said: "It would be easy for me to use those as excuses.

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"We took about 10 hours to get here, plane cancelled, had to dash across and get a train.

"Then we've had a bout of food poisoning this morning, lots of lads gone down with poor tummies.

"But we still had more than enough about us to come here and get at least a point.

"I'm not going to use any of those excuses.

"We have got to be adaptable, this league is a league were the most adaptable team over the course of 46 games has success so we have just got to pick the bones out of it.

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"We can definitely be better, ideally preparation would be better and we try and control as much as we can control but unfortunately when it comes to bacteria and mother nature.

"Even I can't control that."

Ched Evans recovered from illness and started for Town.

Evans went down after an aerial challenge with Southend’s Michael Turner.

Barton felt the Shrimpers man hit Evans with his arm on more than one occasion.

Town also had a late penalty shout waved away when Moore looked to have impeded Lewie Coyle in the box.

And Barton did not agree with James Wallace’s red card.

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The midfielder came on at half-time for Dean Marney but was sent off in injury time after picking up his second yellow for a foul on Shawn McCoulsey.

He said: “Obviously I'm going to think the worst of it.

I don't think Michael Turner is that kind of player but he definitely hits Ched with his arm across the face, twice, at least.

“Ched is not the kind of boy to go down, the ref was kind of standing there looking at it.

The penalty one I will have to see it back.

“I was too far away to make a call on it.

“Again Coyley is not the kind of boy to throw himself on the floor, especially when he has got a chance to get a strike on goal.

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“I don't think it is a day for complaining about refereeing decisions.

I don't think there is a red card in the game.

“I don't think it was a red card, both tackles are blocks if anything, they are the rules of the game, we have to accept it.

“Gutted for Waldo because he has worked hard to get back in the group.

We dust ourselves down and we go again.”

Though Barton would not single out Bolger for criticism.

He said: “ It is not an individual, it is a mistake by the team.

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“There are lots of people connected to it, I'm not going to pick out any individual, we win or we lose as a team.

“Bolg scores a goal for us last week and Al made a couple of saves.

Maybe they could have been a little bit different in the build up to the goal but we win or we lose as a team.”