Joey Barton hopes Fleetwood will dazzle at Stadium of Light
After the official club photocall yesterday, Barton heads to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light this weekend with all but one of his 23-man squad at his disposal.Only Wes Burns is unavailable after Town lost its appeal against the winger’s red card in last weekend’s 2-1 home win over Bradford City.Barton still has plenty of competition for his 18-man match-day squad after Bobby Grant, Kyle Dempsey, Cian Bolger, Gethin Jones and Eddie Clarke didn’t even make the bench against the Bantams.Barton was pleased to see the back of the transfer window last week and move forward with his class of 2018/19 – until the next window opens in January.The head coach (left) said of his squad: “I’m delighted. Again it is an ongoing process. You are always trying to build the relationships on the pitch and trying to build your group.“To have the window closed allows you to do that because you know what group you are working with ... until it opens again and throws it all back up in the air! “As a manager, the transfer window is one of those things you are really happy to see closed. But if you are looking for one or two players, you want it open a little bit longer.“We did a lot of good work, and credit to the recruitment team and the people in place to get the players. We did a lot of business early and that is paying dividends.”A full-page Fleetwood squad picture will be published in Friday's Gazette