Barton enjoys another fruitful awayday with Fleetwood

Fleetwood manager Joey Barton was delighted with his team’s 1-0 victory against Ipswich while Town boss Paul Lambert said his team and club were “suffering.”

Ched Evans came off the bench to score the only goal of the game and promote Fleetwood up to sixth spot in Sky Bet League One.

The result, Town’s third successive defeat, dented Town’s bid to get close to a top six position.

They have won only four matches in the division in the past 20 and are now six points adrift of the visitors, who extended their unbeaten run to 10 matches.

It was not until the 29th minute when Ipswich skipper Luke Chambers deflected a cross by Barrie McKay against his own post that either goal was threatened.

But five minutes before the break Fleetwood took the lead when Evans played a one-two with McKay to fire home past Ipswich goalkeeper Tomas Holy.

Substitute Freddie Sears had a volley deflected over the bar and Ipswich almost equalised following a goalmouth scramble when Jon Nolan’s shot was blocked and Simpson brought an acrobatic save out of Alex Cairns, who tipped his shot over the bar.

Barton said: “You walk into the stadium and you have the Sir Alf Ramsey Stand and the Sir Bobby Robson Stand down the other end.

“Yet we have a team capable of coming to places like Sunderland and Portman Road and being competitive.

“I spoke to the lads after the game but we challenged the players. I thought we were excellent in the first period and Ipswich did respond – and we had to defend our goal in the second half to take the three points back up the road to the Fylde Coast.

“I would rather be top. But if you can’t be top or second I suppose we have to put up with where we are.

“The difficulty for us is that we have had to play catch all season and I think from that perspective you go into a game knowing you have got games in hand – but knowing the calibre of the teams we have to play was never going to be easy.”

Lambert said: “Everybody’s suffering without doubt, the football club, the supporters, the players, staff, because the club’s not winning.

“The second half was better and we had a few chances to get a goal back but it never happened. They controlled the game in the first half and we did not penetrate them enough.

“We lost our whole midfield from Saturday to injury and suspension which never helped us.

“We have to win games, the expectancy level is huge on us and we find that hard to deal with.

“But you never quit, you never give in and when adversity hits you, you have to come through it. At the minute if they come through it they will be better for it.

“The difference between winning something and having to win something is totally different.”