Joey Barton looks for right chemistry in 'acid tests' before big kick-off for Fleetwood

The young players whose performances delighted their head coach in Tuesday’s EFL Trophy win at Carlisle United can look forward to another opportunity tomorrow, when Town welcome Wigan Athletic to Highbury in the first round of the Carabao Cup.

And Barton is pleased at how well his squad have adapted to a “weird pre-season”. He explained: “Because of the coronavirus restrictions only a limited number of players were allowed back for the play-off games.

“So when we started pre-season, we had some lads coming back after three or four weeks off and some after four or five months, so it was difficult to gauge the group. You almost needed a bespoke attitude for each individual.

“It’s also been weird because we were meant to play Huddersfield and Leeds. Huddersfield had coronavirus issues and Leeds had international call-ups, so we ended up having a good workout against Darlington last weekend and took that performance into Tuesday.

“But we’ve been really pleased with how everyone has approached pre-seson. Tuesday was the first competitive game and I thought the lads acquitted themselves really, really well.

“Some youngsters were given a real opportunity because of the squad we have at the moment and every one of them can be really pleased with their performance. Hopefully they can back it up against Wigan.”

Fleetwood will again be without suspended striker Paddy Madden and a knock in training makes Jack Sowerby doubtful.

Another opportunity for academy graduates Harrison Holgate and James Hill as a defensive partnership looks likely – Town currently have no more experienced centre-halves in their ranks and loan signing Morgan Boyes is with Wales Under-21s.

Barton added: “We see these two games as an extension of pre-season. Tuesday was the first real acid test and Carlisle went as strong as they could. We want to get reinforcements in and we gave opportunities to young players, who did exceptionally well. I was really pleased and look forward to another test before the real stuff kicks off.”

Barton is full of sympathy for Wigan’s plight but has to focus on his own squad and doing a job tomorrow behind closed doors at Highbury.

“We have to make sure we are the best version of ourselves on Saturday,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a tombola trying to work out who will be in their starting 11 but I know who will be in ours, so if we focus on us we’ll have a decent chance of a good result.

“We are full of confidence after a good performance and looking forward to the game.

“The play-offs were a great experience for us all to go through and we learned an awful lot about the character we have.

“The challenge for us now is to come back and carry on that momentum, so we have a lot to prove and to improve on from last year’s campaign and I’m really excited.”

Supporters can watch tomorrow’s game live online by purchasing a ‘match pass’ for £10 via the club website.