Lifting the lid on Fleetwood Town's away day success

Town are unbeaten away from home in the league in their opening eight games of the season.

Barton’s side currently sits eighth in the table but, on away form, they are third as opposed to 13th in the home table.

That has been the way, though, for Town in the previous two seasons.

Town have just one defeat at Highbury this season, the opening day 1-0 loss to AFC Wimbledon, but are unbeaten in seven in the league.

Given their away form Barton is keen to make it eight without defeat at Roots Hall.

He said: “Weirdly we are actually looking forward to away games because we have been so good on the road.

“If we do what we can do we can win. That is a real positive for us to build on.

“It has been strange having a week between games! We aren’t used to it in League One because it has been Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday for a long period.”

The Town boss believes his side’s form on the road is down to a number of different factors.

He said: “I just think it is the way we are set up.

“We are obviously a side that has speed; Wes (Burns) is out, it is his last game on Saturday but we are a side that enjoys counter-attacking.

“The way the away games have panned out, teams are in their home stadium and have to come out and open up a little bit against you.

“We have players that will hurt them away from home.

“By our standards I do not think we have been at the level at home, probably bar the first 70 minutes against Leciester in the Checkatrade and Bradford.

“Wimbledon, Accrington, even the Rochdale game, I think we have got a lot more improvement to come there.

“But on the road we have been excellent.

“We probably should have had another two points at Charlton and Sunderland with a little bit more ruthlessness.

“We understand what we are building here, it is not perfect.

“The key for us is to continuing to keep learning, keep progressing the team and if we do that we will get positive results.”

While Wes Burns serves the last of his three-match ban, Barton is hopeful of having Ched Evans and Dean Marney back.

However, Conor McAleny and Craig Morgan are still injury doubts.