Joey Barton keeps everything in perspective after 'bizarre' defeat for Fleetwood Town

Joey Barton was left “scratching his head” by Fleetwood Town’s 6-3 aggregate defeat by Wycombe Wanderers in their League One play-off semi-final.
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Town went into Monday’s second leg at Adams Park with a three- goal deficit and without Lewie Coyle and Paddy Madden, after both had been sent off at Highbury last Friday.

Crucial errors led to goals, but instead of cursing his bad luck afterwards Barton accepted that anything can happen in sport – even if he wasn’t quite sure how his side had been eliminated.

Fleetwood Town's play-off defeat by Wycombe has left head coach Joey Barton scratching his headFleetwood Town's play-off defeat by Wycombe has left head coach Joey Barton scratching his head
Fleetwood Town's play-off defeat by Wycombe has left head coach Joey Barton scratching his head
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“That’s football,” the head coach said. “I think we’d ironed the mistakes out when we came here and won with 10 men (1-0 in February). It could have been 7-0 as it could have been at stages again.

“You kind of sit scratching your head and thinking, ‘How have they beaten us over two games?’ It’s bizarre but that’s football. That’s the beauty of the game.

“There are no points for style, no points for passes. It’s about putting the ball in the back of the net and they did that more times than us.

“You’ve got to come back and improve your group. We’re obviously going to lose a few lads because they’re not ours. They’ll go back to their clubs.

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“We’ve got to come back and harness this feeling, this disappointment of coming up short.”

Town were one of the in- form sides in the country and closing in on automatic promotion when play was halted for close to four months.

And Barton added: “We’re convinced that if the Covid crisis hadn’t come, the football pyramid might have looked slightly different.

“It’s not just us – I think we’ve seen some crazy results over the last few weeks. But we mustn’t lose track that thousands have lost their lives in the pandemic.

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People sometimes get caught up in football results but there are a lot of people out there who have potentially lost their employment and certainly lost loved ones.

“We mustn’t lose sight of what this is – it’s a game, a hobby. We love it, it’s important, but it isn’t life and death.”

Paddy Madden has been charged with a breach of an FA rule following his red card in Friday’s first leg at Highbury. The charge is that the striker’s “language and/or behaviour in the 85th minute of the game was improper and/or abusive and/or insulting.” Madden has until tomorrow to respond.