15 December 2020

Joey Barton says Fleetwood’s game plan worked perfectly in draw at Portsmouth

15 December 2020

Fleetwood manager Joey Barton hailed his side’s perfect game plan after earning a 0-0 draw at Portsmouth to stop the hosts going top of the table.

The visitors could even have nicked a win in the dying seconds but for goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray’s brilliant save to keep out Charlie Mulgrew’s bullet header.

Barton said: “We knew where we wanted Portsmouth to have possession.

“They have got real quality in the front line but we felt we could take the game away from them a little bit by allowing their defenders to play out from the back.

“The game plan worked perfectly and in the second half if anyone was going to win, I thought it would be us.

“Their goalkeeper made an outstanding save right at the end to give them a point. Had we nicked the win it would have been the cherry on the cake.

“The clean sheet away from home against a top team keeps the momentum going and keeps us right up there in the table.”

Portsmouth dominated possession during an ill-tempered first half and looked the more likely team to open the scoring.

Fleetwood goalkeeper Jayson Leutwiler made two good saves to deny Ronan Curtis and Ryan Williams early on before palming away Marcus Harness’ cross-shot.

At the other end, MacGillivray was equal to Wes Burns’ sweetly-struck shot while Mulgrew put a free header over the crossbar from Josh Morris’ free-kick.

Barton’s men were fortunate not to have defender Danny Andrew sent off after he hauled down John Marquis having already been one of seven players shown yellow cards.

Pompey continued to dictate the game in the second half but failed to test Leutwiler, with Curtis, Harness and Marquis all firing wide.

It would have been harsh on the home team had Mulgrew’s 89th-minute header proved to be the winner.

The draw takes Pompey into the automatic promotion places for the first time in nearly two years.

Manager Kenny Jackett said: “It was a slightly frustrating night as we never really got going as we know we can going forward.

“Our decision-making and ability to link cohesively like we normally do wasn’t there.

“We had control of the game and did not really look in any danger but all of the time you do not score, you are always worried there is a chance coming at the other end.

“We were on top in both halves but it was not one of our better performances.

“In the second half we huffed and puffed and worked hard but did not create enough chances.”

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