Joey Barton inspired by Sir Bobby Robson as Fleetwood Town maintain fine form at Ipswich

Paddy Madden (left) and Glenn Whelan applaud the Fleetwood fans after the victory at Ipswich

Ipswich Town 0 Fleetwood Town 1: Ched Evans strike lifts Town back into play-off...

The Cod Army have won six of their last seven and are unbeaten in 10 going into Saturday’s home clash with Blackpool.

Head coach Barton reflected post-match: “There is an Alf Ramsey stand at one end of this ground and the Bobby Robson stand the other – a World Cup-winning manager and a World Cup semi-final manager. It’s very rare to see that

“I was watching a documentary about Bobby Robson last night. As someone who’s very early in their managerial career, it’s great to have a team that’s able to go to Sunderland last time out and then Portman Road and be competitive. I was lucky enough to play here two or three times.

“When you have my players’ mindset at the moment there’s just no fear.”

Barton was pleased at the way his resolute side dug in at Ipswich, with shot-stopper Alex Cairns making a string of fine saves, and the Town boss was delighted to see the players meet the challenge set by the coaching staff ahead of the game.

He explained: “We challenged the boys, especially after the Sunderland game, to keep the ball more away from home against big sides.

“We challenged them to be braver in possession and I thought we were excellent at that in the first period.

“Second half I think we got away from that a little bit, but you have to give credit to Ipswich because they’re fighting to stay in the play-off picture.

“They did respond and we had to defend our goal in the second period to make sure we got that vital clean sheet and take the three points back up the road.”

The Cod Army are sixth with 11 to play and four points outside the two automatic promotion places, though with a game in hand on second-placed Rotherham United.

Barton said: “I’d rather be top! But if we can’t be top, second or third, then we’ve got to put up with where we are.

“The difficulty for us is we’ve been playing catch-up all season.

“You go into games knowing you’ve got games in hand, but they were never going to be easy because of the calibre of teams we had to play in those games in hand.

“One of them is Portsmouth away next Tuesday and one was Sunderland away last Tuesday. There are some big sides in this division.”