Fleetwood Town midfielder does his international hopes no harm

The summer arrival from Rochdale opened the scoring in the first minute at Highbury on Saturday with a fine volley.

As well as putting Town on the way to three points, it could also have boosted Camps’ international ambitions with Northern Ireland manager Ian Baraclough watching on.

Though Stockport-born, Camps qualifies for Northern Ireland thanks to his grandmother and has already represented their Under-21s.

Barton said: “It is difficult to recruit players of his calibre but he was running his contract down, we were in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic, so a lot of things had to fall into place for us to get his deal over the line.

“There was his desire to come here and feel that this was the right place for him though, and so I am delighted for him and the way he’s hit the ground running here.

“Ian Baraclough was here for the game. He’s already phoned me a couple of times about Callum (left).

“Whether he gets called up eventually, I’m not sure, but he’s certainly catching the eye.

“I’ve told Baraclough that he’ll get you a goal from midfield, but he also does a lot more than that.

“He always puts a great shift in for the team. He’s just a very, very good footballer.

“If you can do all those things and you can get 10, 12, 15 goals from midfield, you can then become very unique in the marketplace.

“A lot of teams would seek that kind of player, so we’re just delighted to have him in our team.

“He’s getting better and better, and the best is yet to come.”

Camps’ goal after 45 seconds set the tone for an eventful start to Saturday’s game.

Town keeper Jayson Leutwiler also saved James Henry’s penalty after Charlie Mulgrew was deemed to have fouled Matt Taylor.

Town went on to dominate the game, particularly after the restart, but they didn’t seal a third straight win until substitute Paddy Madden netted 14 minutes from the end.

“I’m really, really pleased with what’s been a good week’s work for everyone,” said Barton.

“They (Oxford) are in a false league position. They were in the play-off final last year don’t forget, so it’s only going to be a matter of time before they get their season back on track.

“We were adamant we didn’t want that to be here today.

“From a selfish point of view, though, the longer and longer this game went on, the more we controlled it.

“Oxford were a bit fortunate we didn’t go on to score three or four.”

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