Joey Barton feels Fleetwood deserved their victory over in-form Peterborough

Delighted Fleetwood boss Joey Barton felt his side were “superb” and well-deserved 2-1 victors against in-form Peterborough.

Callum Connolly and Wes Burns were on target for Town as they secured a fourth straight win under Barton for the first time.

Barton, whose side sit just outside the play-off places, said: “I spoke to the lads in the build-up to the game and I said ‘if we win today or lose, it isn’t going to make or break our season’, but it was just three vital points on offer.

“If Peterborough had won they’d have been 10 points clear of us, so now it’s just four and we’ve got three games in hand.

“They are a really good side in this division.

“They’d won six on the spin coming in and were second in the table, so we knew we’d have to play the game in the right manner, especially in these conditions.

“Sometimes in these types of games it’s just position against possession, but in the second half in particular I thought we were superb with our game management.

“Looking back, other than the wonder strike for their equaliser, I can’t think of a great deal else they created.

“We thoroughly deserved to win the game in my view.”

Mo Eisa fluffed an early penalty chance for Posh.

After Alex Cairns had felled Siriki Dembele in the box, the Town goalkeeper redeemed himself by saving Eisa’s spot-kick.

The hosts then went ahead when Callum Connolly smashed home from 12 yards.

Burns skied an effort after being put through by Barrie McKay, while just after the restart, Danny Andrew thumped the base of a post with a 30-yard pile-driver.

Peterborough levelled in the 54th minute when full-back Dan Butler drove home from 25 yards but their six-match winning streak came to an end thanks to Burns’ 76th-minute winner.

Posh manager Darren Ferguson rued his side’s early spot-kick miss.

“Of course it’s a really disappointing and frustrating outcome for us,” he said.

“We’ve been on a really good run but there are always key moments in every game and the penalty early on was that today.

“Once we knew Ivan (Toney) wasn’t going to be around Mo was always going to take it, but it just didn’t happen for him this time.

“Once we eventually made it 1-1 I think there was only one team in the game.

“We didn’t go on to make our dominance count, though, and again that’s a disappointing factor.

“We’ve given away a poor goal towards the end and we’ve lost the game.

“We’ve got a two-week gap before the next game now, and we’ve just got to go away and make the most of that.

“We’ll look back at this game and take stock, and look forward to the next game in a fortnight.”