BARTON FEELS PAIN OF DEFEAT
JOEY BARTON was philosophical after his first League One match as Fleetwood boss ended in defeat to AFC Wimbledon.
Joe Pigott’s 60th-minute close-range effort was the difference at Highbury as 35-year-old Barton oversaw his first game in the dugout.
But the new boss was left cursing Lady Luck as Town started the new season with a defeat.
Barton’s mantra is ‘you win or you learn’ and he now wants his team to improve when they head to Oxford next Saturday.
The former England midfielder said: “Obviously I would have wanted it to have ended in a victory but the lads gave us everything in terms of effort and endeavour.
“They could have played better but you have to give credit to Wimbledon, they manfully and stoically defended their goal at times.
“Sometimes you need a little bit of luck in football and a bit of a helping hand, and on another day we certainly could have had that.
“Credit to Wimbledon, they defended their goal superbly and we have a starting point to work from now.
“It’s important that we review, reflect and learn the lessons and move forward to Oxford now and hopefully we will get a positive result.”
The pre-match build-up was all about Barton, taking charge of his first game, but AFC Wimbledon turned up at Highbury determined to steal the headlines.
Kwesi Appiah and Pigott were both guilty of wasting clear-cut chances in the first half for the Dons with Ched Evans nearly scoring a David Beckham-esque goal from inside his own half. Fleetwood came out fighting with Tommy Spurr forcing Tom King into a fine save after Bobby Grant’s corner fell to him at the back post.
But that scare rallied the Dons and they took the lead moments later, Ben Purrington’s cross from the left did the damage, flicked on by Andy Barcham and Pigott was on hand to gobble up the chance in the 60th minute.
After the match, AFC Wimbledon boss Neal Ardley echoed Barton’s praise for his defence and lauded new Rotherham loan signing Ben Purrington for his role in the goal.
He said: “All round a very solid, decent performance.
“The only criticism is that we did not take those couple of chances in the last couple of minutes.
“Ben had a great debut, Andy Barcham does brilliantly to get on the cross and Joe Pigott does what he does best, he scores goals. I thought at the other end their one real moment was when they thought they scored from a Bobby Grant long-range shot.
“There is not much you can do if you are beaten by a longrange shot. Other than that I thought we defended brilliantly.”
FLEETWOOD TOWN: Cairns 6, Coyle 6 (Hunter 67, 6), Bolger 7, Morgan 7, Spurr 6, Sowerby 6 (Marney 61, 6), Dempsey 7, McAleny 5 (Madden 67, 6), Grant 7, Burns 6, Evans 7 Subs not used: P Jones, G Jones, Sheron, Nadesan
AFC WIMBLEDON: King 8, Watson 8, Oshilaja 7, Nightingale 7, Purrington 8, Pinnock 5 (Wagstaff 77, 6), Soares 7, Trotter 7, Barcham 7, Pigott 8, Appiah 5 (Hanson 76, 6) Subs not used: McDonnell, Garratt, Sibbick Hartigan, Wordsworth