Joey Barton wants Fleetwood Town to finish the job with no-fear mindset

Fleetwood boss Joey Barton says that only play-off winners are remembered

Coyle wants to make most of preparation time to achieve promotion goal

The points-per-game system used to finalise the table has left the head coach with mixed feelings as Town prepare to face Wycombe Wanderers over two legs in next month’s semi-finals.

Barton’s side were building great momentum when play was halted after their draw at Portsmouth on March 10, a result which extended their unbeaten run to 12 games.

And Barton told BBC Radio Lancashire: “For us it was unfortunate it stopped when it stopped, but like every other team in the country we accepted it was unsafe to carry on.

“At that point we were in the lap of the gods really and didn’t know how it was going to be resolved, whether we’d play out the remaining games or have the points-per-game scenario that it’s turned out to be.

“I think there are seven or eight teams who all thought they had a chance of automatic promotion or play-offs.

“I think that in August even the most optimistic of Fleetwood fans would happily have taken a play-off berth, so it can be looked at both ways.

“Knowing the players and the staff as I do, the feeling was that we could have got automatic. I don’t think we thought we’d be running into any teams down the line who were stronger than us, in a better vein of form than us or fitter than us.

“We were in that ‘no fear’ mindset, where we saw every game as an opportunity to get stronger, grow as a unit and learn more about our players and our team. Obviously once the play-offs start we get the opportunity to do so again.”

And as Town build up their training for the July 3 first leg at Highbury, Barton is impressing on his players that nothing has been achieved yet.

He added: “We’ve spoken to the lads. The season’s finished early and we’ve finished level-par because we feel we could have pushed on in the last nine games.

“We thought we had some real winnable games, albeit they would have been tough because every team has to be respected.

“The other side is we can’t get over-enthusiastic and too far ahead of ourselves because the reality is that you’ve achieved nothing by finishing in the four play-off berths.

“You don’t remember anyone who finishes in those positions unless you go on and get the job done.”