Joey Barton: Portsmouth is toughest place for Fleetwood to visit

Joey Barton (back row, third from right) will be back in the dugout at Portsmouth tonight after completing his touchline ban on Saturday

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The Cod Army dropped one place in the table, leaving them in seventh spot with Pompey above them on goal difference.

Wins for Oxford United and Peterborough United moved both sides ahead of Town and into the top six.

Fleetwood’s game is one of four League One clashes tonight, with fellow promotion chasers Sunderland also in action as they come up against Bristol Rovers.

Only Wycombe Wanderers boast a better home record than Portsmouth, so Barton knows the trip to Fratton Park will not be easy.

They meet a Pompey side which has visited Highbury twice this season, winning January’s FA Cup meeting before Town took three points in the league encounter last month.

“It’s the toughest place to go to,” head coach Barton said. “They haven’t lost at home this season – us and Coventry have only lost one home game.

“Pompey sit there with an undefeated home record for a reason.

“It’s 1-1. They knocked us out of the cup and we beat them here, so that sets it up nicely.

“This will be as thorough an examination as we’ll have and there will be so many challenges in our run-in, but Portsmouth have an internal and external expectation to get out of the division.

“I think we’ve got an internal expectation without the external.”

Barton is not expecting to be able to use the atmosphere at Fratton Park against tonight’s hosts.

He has previously spoken about trying to turn fans’ attention away from their side but does not think that will be possible at Portsmouth.

The hosts have the third highest average attendance in the league behind Sunderland and Ipswich Town with around 17,800 coming through the gates.

Barton said: “At Sunderland, to be fair to their fans, they stuck with their team (throughout the draw with Fleetwood), and at Fratton Park with the run they’ve been on, I don’t really see the fans getting after them.

“If we are two or three goals up I surmise they would do, but so would our fans if we were two or three down.

“It will be a tight affair and it’s our job to try to get the negative energy from their crowd and focus it on their team and players, but every time I’ve been to Portsmouth they’ve been vocal.

“They have that bell ringer who never shuts up and tends to get them at it, so we will be examined.”