Paul Coutts: Fleetwood face massive matches whatever the result of voting

Coutts’ team have a greater interest than most League One clubs in the voting to come – Town will be involved in a promotion race if the decision is to play out the season, or a play-off competition if clubs vote to curtail the campaign.

Should the season resume, Fleetwood would be eyeing up automatic promotion and their form before the action stopped 11 weeks ago stood them in good stead.

If the final table is instead decided on points-per-game (PPG) averages, Town would take sixth spot and face Wycombe Wanderers in the play-off semi-finals.

Coutts told The Gazette it’s very much a waiting game. The Scot said: “Obviously we’ll see what comes out of the owners voting but either way it looks like we’ll either have the play-offs or the rest of the season to play out. I think everyone is just looking forward to seeing what happens.

“Whether the owners want to end the season or not, we’ve got something to look forward to in that we can either push for the top two or we’ll be in the play-offs.

“We don’t have a date for training. We’re going to wait for confirmation, then it’s just a case of whether we’re playing the season or the play-offs because we’re going to have to think of all the logistics of that.”

If the season is cut short, the EFL has recommended an ‘unweighted’ PPG system, which would not compensate clubs who have played more away fixtures than home ones, or who have played more games against the stronger teams than the weaker ones.

This system would see Fleetwood Town drop a place from fifth and Wycombe jump up to third from eighth.

Some clubs would lose out through PPG and legal action has been threatened.

Midfielder Coutts admits it’s difficult to find a solution that is fair on everyone.

He said: “Any team that is in the play-offs is going to be a tough team to play. It looks like it’s going to be Wycombe if points-per-game is the case.

“From our point of view, the two teams we’ve struggled against the most this season – and I know we’ve done well results-wise against them – are Peterborough and Sunderland.

“They would be two tough tests for us, so it’s probably a bit fortunate for us if they just miss out and end up in seventh and eighth.

“Early on in the season, Wycombe were up in the top three and they were just dropping away as the season finished, but with a game in hand.

“They will be there on merit and it would be a tough game for us.

“We did okay against them early in the season when we drew 1-1 with a late equaliser, then we beat them down there.

“That was a tough game but it will be different this time. The pitch had no grass and it was a horrible night.

“Hopefully the pitch has recovered a bit, and we can get the ball down and play football.”