Joey Barton: Why I enjoyed lockdown

Joey Barton says he made the most of the time and space afforded to him by lockdown

READ MORE Joe Davis column: My only regret about time at Fleetwood is leaving.

After almost three months away from the club, Barton and his squad are in their third week of training ahead of their play-off semi-finals against Wycombe Wanderers on July 3 and 6.

And the head coach, who signed up as a NHS volunteer during lockdown, told BBC Radio Lancashire: “I really enjoyed lockdown if I’m honest.

“Leaving school and going into professional football as a player, then going into the coaching side I’ve never really had that amount of time at home with my kids and family. I had a real space.

“It wasn’t ideal for everyone but I think you have to turn a bad situation into something you can use to propel you forward and use every experience as a learning experience.

“I was able to do a bit of work on myself and tried to make sure I came back to the lads in the best shape – physically, emotionally and mentally – I could.

“Obviously you are brimming with ideas because you have a lot of time to study other philosophies and other coaches, managers and teams, and also study your own team.

“I was able to go through our recent performances and we’ve been to some very, very difficult places: Portsmouth was the last game, Ipswich away, Sunderland, Wycombe .... We head into the play-offs after one defeat in 17.”

Wycombe’s form had been more erratic before their last game at the end of February, though it remains to be seen if Fleetwood’s greater consistency will be a factor after such a long lay-off.

Barton knows how difficult it is to maintain form at the best of times but says Fleetwood can only give it their best shot.

He added: “We are a team that has forgotten how to lose and we must work incredibly hard to continue that.

“We are fully aware it’s very, very hard to capture that kind of form. It’s always rented. You never own it, and you have to keep working hard and sacrificing as a group.

“If you do that, football isn’t rocket science and good things tend to happen.

“We focus on controlling what we can control, albeit in a strange time with a lot of restrictions on what we can and can’t do.

“When we get to July 3 there will be no excuses from us.

“We’ll be ready to go and really looking forward to watching our boys perform.”