27 October 2020

Joey Barton pleased Fleetwood saw out their victory over Shrewsbury

27 October 2020

Joey Barton was delighted that his Fleetwood side “stood up to be counted” as they notched a well-deserved 1-0 victory against Shrewsbury.

Ched Evans proved the match-winner as he struck midway through the first half on a night when the Cod Army really ought to have won by a wider margin.

Barton said: “If you don’t get that second goal teams can come back at you like Shrewsbury did.

“They chanced their arm a bit towards the end, but at the same time we had a couple of great chances on the counter-attack and were probably a bit wasteful.

“We had to defend properly, like we did at Gillingham on Saturday, so overall I’m really pleased to come out of the week with six points and two clean sheets.

“When you’re only the one goal up it’s not great for your hair – mine is growing greyer by the second – but you have to give Shrewsbury some credit too.

“Their keeper made a couple of great saves, and if you don’t get that second goal you’re always going to give the opposition that belief that they can get back in it.

“They did that, they kept fighting for Sam, and they kept asking questions of us, but we stood up to be counted and I thought we deservedly hung on for the three points.”

Fleetwood struck after 25 minutes when Danny Andrew drilled in a low cross which was met by Evans, who side-footed home smartly.

Throughout the 90 minutes the hosts ought to have scored more, with Shrews’ keeper Harry Burgoyne having an inspired game.

He produced a number of superb stops, most notably from Fleetwood substitute Callum Camps, Evans again, and Paddy Madden.

Shrews boss Sam Ricketts saw his side slip into League One’s bottom four.

He said: “It’s been one of those nights for us, both annoying and frustrating.

“I thought it was a 50/50 game, definitely so in the second half, but when you’re on top like we were you’ve got to convert your chances.

“We’re not doing that right now for one reason or another, and we’ve got to put the work in to put that right.

“The performance levels are good from the team, and we showed that tonight at times when I thought we dominated that second half.

“You’ve got to be more ruthless in front of goal, though.

“It’s almost as if things are conspiring against us right now, but we’ll go away and look back at things and keep working hard.

“It’s still way too early to look at the table and worry too much.

“There’s lots of football still to be played and we know we’ve got the players to take us back up the table.”

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