Joey Barton: Fleetwood’s play-off chances are over

Joey Barton says Fleetwood’s “abject” second-half display at relegation-threatened Walsall has cost them any chance of making the play-offs.

Close-range second-half goals from Morgan Ferrier and Dan Scarr – his first for the Saddlers – secured a vital 2-0 win to leave the visitors six points off sixth place.

Fleetwood registered just one shot on target and Barton did not hold back with his frustration.

He said: “That realistically puts paid to the play-off ambitions. I think if we had a long shot at that, it’s gone today. It was a really abject second-half showing.

“Performances like the second half today seriously make you question whether there are some players who are capable of coming on this journey with us.

“First half, on a poor pitch, we played some good stuff and we came in at half-time and gave the lads praise.

“Then we concede two goals – one from a set-play and the other from the second phase of a set-play, so I’m incredibly disappointed.

“The players probably had the praise they got at half-time ringing around their ears and every time I give them praise they seem to get a bit carried away with themselves.

“If we cannot get promoted – which now looks an impossibility – then we will use the time wisely. That will be to find players that are capable of getting us out of this division.”

Victory moved Walsall up four places to 16th, three points above the bottom four ahead of a run of four games against the top six, starting at home to Portsmouth on Tuesday night.

Back-to-back home wins for the first time since August have come at a crucial time for boss Dean Keates, who admitted: “We’ve got a tricky run of games coming up.

“We started the season really well and maybe we were victims of our own success if I’m honest. Expectations rose, but the only aim was to get to 52 points as quick as we can.

“We’re on track, we’re going in the right direction, but you can see how tight the table is. After Tuesday night it could be a totally different picture being painted.

“From us to about five places above us in the table, everybody’s in a dogfight.

“There are 10 games left, 30 points to play for, we want to get as many points as we can and make sure we’re not going into the last few games looking over our shoulders.

“It looks okay on the eye at the minute (16th) but we are only three points and five places above the relegation zone. There are going to be twists and turns.”