Prolific Paddy Madden always ready to pounce, says Fleetwood boss Joey Barton
Blackpool’s top scorer Armand Gnanduillet may be an injury doubt for Saturday’s derby with Fleetwood but Town’s main marksman is raring to go.
The Town head coach said: “Pad does lots of things in terms of his energy and his workrate, but he’s as good as anybody in the box.
“He’s always on the move. He’s always expecting a mistake and he’s always ready to pounce if a defender just gets it wrong, as he showed for the winner at Crawley.”
Fleetwood are on a five-game winning streak and Barton admits he faces tricky selection choices.
He added: “Usually good things happen when you’re finding it difficult to pick your starting 11.
“We’ve got a real difficulty because there’s so much competition for places and so much quality, and that’s testament to the lads putting it in on a daily basis.”
Town will discover their northern quarter-final opponents in the EFL Trophy tonight. The draw can be seen on Sky Sports News from 7.15pm.
Fleetwood Town’s Under-18s won through to the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup with victory over Watford on penalties at Highbury.
Enoch Takpe’s stoppage-time goal for Town made it 2-2 and forced extra-time.
Kai Steer scored the winning penalty in the shoot-out and Scott Pengelly saved two Hornets spot-kicks.