Joey Barton reveals anger at Andy Holt’s Twitter comments

Posted Sunday, March 31, 2019 by PA

Fleetwood manager Joey Barton was overjoyed to be celebrating a 1-0 win over Accrington after being angered by Twitter remarks made by Stanley chairman Andy Holt in the build-up to the game.

On-loan Stoke defender Harry Souttar celebrated his first Football League goal with a header from a Ross Wallace corner after 50 minutes which settled the contest.

But Barton was keen to make his feelings known about Accrington owner Holt after the game.

“He talked about our budget, that’s disrespectful and I told him that it lacked respect before the game,” Barton said.

“I don’t talk about his finances, perhaps he wanted more followers on Twitter.

“He needs to be careful as that was my team-talk done, I didn’t need a team-talk, I could just pin his words on the dressing room.

“He has been vocal about our club’s budget, perhaps he should invest in his playing surface as it’s a shambles and it affects his team as well.

“We were worthy winners and the only disappointment is that we didn’t win by five or six as we had our chances.”

Fleetwood are eight points behind sixth-placed Doncaster with a game in hand.

“Our ambition is a play-off spot and it’s a long shot but that is back-to-back wins and it’s an outside chance of catching up.

“We just want to finish as high as we can and it’s nice to be fighting for something in April as it’s a highly competitive league.

“So far we have taken two steps forward and then one step back, but we are moving in the right direction. (Goalkeeper) Alex Cairns has kept 15 clean sheets this season.”

Stanley boss John Coleman knows his side face a battle to stay up – they are two points above the bottom four.

“It was a scrappy game and the pitch was bobbly. We felt our disallowed goal was fine and you do see them given,” said Coleman.

“They only had three corners but managed to score from one whereas we had more and we could have done better with ours.

“When you are down there, things don’t go your way and we didn’t have any luck in the box. We had a lot of possession in their half in the second half but we didn’t make enough of it.

“Our keeper has only had two saves to make so I can’t see why Joey would be saying they should have won by more goals. He might change his mind when he looks back at the game.

“We just have to look forward now, we have some tough games starting with Sunderland on Wednesday but we will give it our best shot.”