Joey Barton's joy as Fleetwood Town show another side to their game

Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton used Burton Albion’s own strengths against them on Saturday and is looking to follow up on that result tonight.
Fleetwood Town head coach Joey BartonFleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton
Fleetwood Town head coach Joey Barton

Town beat the Brewers 2-1 at Highbury on Saturday and will be following that game up with a Carabao Cup clash with Port Vale this evening.

Barton could well employ a similar approach on the Fylde coast tonight, highlighting the threats that the opposition pose and looking to nullify them in order to impose the Cod Army’s style.

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Speaking after the win over Burton, Barton (pictured) said: “I could see how they were going to build a lot of their attacks.

“You just have to take an opposition’s strength off them and use it against them sometimes.

“We can definitely pass the ball a lot better but sometimes you just have to find a way of getting those three points.

“Today we did it a slightly different way. If you’d been in the stadium last season as opposed to this season, you’d probably seen us play in a different manner.

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“But to win a championship, to be promoted, to be a good team, to have good cup runs and to win games of football, you need to show multiple ways of getting that result.

“For me, we showed a bit more of a physical side today. I’m delighted, especially because that team contained some young players.”

There were a few shocks in League One on the opening day of the campaign .

Early favourites for promotion, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Peterborough United, all failed to pick up three points, the latter losing 2-0 to Accrington Stanley.

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Peterborough are next on the list in the league for Fleetwood this weekend.

However, with the possibility of a home game against Everton or Salford City in the next round of the Carabao Cup, the focus is on tonight’s game first against a Vale side fancied to challenge for promotion from League Two.

Barton said: “We’re confident we can have a good season, as I say it’s one game at a time so we’ll look forward to a cup game on Tuesday night and then the fixture at Peterborough the following Saturday.

“It’s a cup game and we know what’s at the end of that, and I think we just have to focus on another positive performance and giving another good account of ourselves in our stadium.

“They’re a side we’ve played twice in pre-season in the last couple of years and a side that we know will give us a good test, and we’ll look forward to it.”