Joey Barton delighted with Fleetwood’s second-half display at Shrewsbury

Posted Sunday, September 29, 2019 by PA

Fleetwood manager Joey Barton was impressed with his side’s efforts as they won 3-0 at Shrewsbury to climb to third in the Sky Bet League One table.

The Lancashire side led at half-time after Jimmy Dunne’s header from a corner struck the cross bar and bounced in off Shrewsbury striker Callum Lang.

Josh Morris and Paddy Madden then weighed in after the break to complete a productive afternoon for Fleetwood as they made it 20 points from their opening 10 league games.

Shrewsbury had earlier started brightly with Sean Goss close to an early break through when his effort from close to the halfway line was kept out by goalkeeper Alex Cairns.

But it was ultimately a frustrating day for Sam Ricketts and his Shrewsbury team as they were beaten at home in League One for the first time this season.

“It was a game of two halves really,” said Barton. “Shrewsbury caused us problems in the first half.

“Obviously, they play a kind of 3-5-2 and obviously the width they were creating was causing us problems and they carved out a couple of good half opportunities.”

But Barton added: “We knew once we changed round second half, we had a plan to change tactically, we did that, and I just felt we controlled the game and Shrewsbury were probably a tad fortunate that it only finished 3-0. We’ve carved out a number of decent opportunities after that.

“But 3-0 away from home, certainly in the position that we are in the table where teams will know that we’re a good team and know we’re on a good run, and, obviously, they’ve been unbeaten at home to start the season.

“Sam’s got a good side there and today I thought second half we were really emphatic in the way we went about our business.”

Morris doubled Fleetwood’s lead early in the second half when he converted a cross from Lewie Coyle before substitute Madden came off the bench to volley home a late third.

Shrewsbury boss Ricketts, whose side are 12th in the table, said: “I’m bitterly disappointed because I thought we started the game well and I thought we were on top for the first 20-30 minutes and had two, three, four decent chances.

“The game started off well. Gossy made the keeper make a good save right at the start and the following corner we had a good chance, a wide free-kick we had a good chance, a few balls flying across the box, and we didn’t take any of them.

“Then we concede a goal off a set piece against the run of play and I think that knocked the stuffing out us really and it shouldn’t do.”