Fleetwood boss Joey Barton saluted “a good week” after his side notched a convincing 2-0 victory against stuttering Oxford.

Goals from Callum Camps and Paddy Madden ensured the Cod Army secured a third straight Sky Bet League One success.

Oxford, meanwhile, continue to struggle in the drop zone and have never beaten Fleetwood in 12 attempts.

“I’m really, really pleased with what’s been a good week’s work for everyone,” said Barton, who clearly has some sympathy for Oxford’s current plight.

“Obviously Gillingham is never an easy place to go, then we had to back that up at home to Shrewsbury who are fighting for their lives. and then we’ve beaten Oxford today.

“They (Oxford) are in a false league position. They were in the play-off final last year don’t forget, so it’s only going to be a matter of time before they get their season back on track.

“We were adamant we didn’t want that to be here today. From a selfish point of view, though, the longer and longer this game went on, the more we controlled it.

“It was very pleasing to get that early goal, that really settles you down, then we challenged the lads at half-time.

“We were able to use our squad in the second half, and the depth in there, and to be honest they were a bit fortunate we didn’t go on to score three or four.”

It had been a dramatic start to the game, with Fleetwood going ahead after only 45 seconds when Camps chested down then volleyed home superbly.

Goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler was then the Town hero as he brilliantly saved James Henry’s penalty kick after Charlie Mulgrew had bundled over Matt Taylor.

Oxford offered little after that moment, but it took until the 76th minute for Fleetwood to wrap up a well-deserved win when Paddy Madden smashed home clinically from 15 yards.

Oxford boss Karl Robinson continues to rue a number of missing players through injuries.

“I have no words after that,” said Robinson. “I won’t stand here and point the finger at anybody, though.

“We go behind after 30 seconds or whatever it was, to a real wonder strike, but then we should have been level from the penalty.

“I thought we dominated the remainder of the first half certainly, but we’ve lost to two fantastic strikes at the end of it.

“I’ve said it before, but we just can’t cope with the size of the squad we’ve got here. We just don’t have the size of squad available that some teams have.

“Fleetwood had a really strong bench and their substitutes have changed the game.

“They’ve brought on Paul Coutts and Paddy Madden, and he goes and scores a great goal to finish us off.

“Of course I have to take full responsibility for results like this, but at no stage have we been out-fought or out-played this season.”