Fleetwood Town loanee keeps the faith after midweek defeat

Town slipped to a 1-0 defeat against Northampton Town on Tuesday, Joey Barton’s players firing a rare blank having found the net on plenty of occasions in recent weeks.

Nevertheless, Town’s loan defender Tom Edwards says the standards in training this week have gone up off the back of their reverse at Sixfields.

Consequently, the on-loan Stoke City man is backing his team-mates to recover their goalscoring touch and to provide a response.

He said: “We’re still confident we can get goals, we’ve shown that in previous games.

“We’re trying to bounce back in the game coming up against Blackpool and hopefully we can get a win.

“There’s so much competition for places, you can tell in training.

“Every day the standard goes up and the tempo goes up, and it’s tough to keep your place.”

The make-up of the squad at Highbury does offer Barton the option of rotating his line-up.

Game time can prove a luxury for players that find themselves out of a team enjoying a run of fine form.

“It’s harder to get in the team and once you get in there, you’ve got to prove you can stay in there,” Edwards admitted.

“There are players on the bench that are fighting to get on and deserve a chance to play, so you’ve got to perform at your best in training and on game days.

“You know if you don’t perform you could well be on the bench, 100 per cent.

“Even in training this week, we’ve been gutted about the defeat but we can’t dwell on it if we want to get to where we want to be.

“The standard in training has gone up another notch, you can tell it’s affected the lads and they want to bounce back as soon as possible.”

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