Barton is left fuming at abject showing
FLEETWOOD boss Joey Barton says his side’s “abject” second-half display in the defeat at Walsall has cost them any chance of making the play-offs.
A pair of closerange second-half goals from Morgan Ferrier and Dan Scarr – his first for Walsall – gave the Saddlers a vital win to leave Fleetwood six points off sixth place.
Fleetwood registered just one shot on target and Barton did not hold back his frustration.
He said: “That realistically puts paid to the play-off ambitions. It was a really abject second-half showing.
“Performances like the second half make you question whether there are some players who are capable of coming on this journey with us.
“If we cannot get promoted – which now looks an impossibility – then we will use the time wisely. That will be to find players that are capable of getting us out of this division.”
Victory moved Walsall up four places to 16th, three points above the bottom four ahead of a run of four games against the top six, starting at home to Portsmouth on Tuesday.
Back-to-back home wins for the first time since August arrive at a crucial moment for boss Dean Keates, who admitted: “We’ve got a tricky run of games coming up.
“We started the season really well and maybe we were victims of our own success if I’m honest. Expectations rose but the only aim was to get to 52 points as quickly as we can.
“We’re on track, we’re going in the right direction, but you can see how tight the table is.
“There are 10 games left, 30 points to play for, we want to get as many points as we can and make sure that we are not going into the last few games looking over our shoulders.”
A dull first half yielded just two chances as Saddlers keeper Liam Roberts tipped Wes Burns’ 30-yard free-kick wide and Walsall’s Joe Edwards whistled a volley over from 20 yards.
Walsall took the lead after 54 minutes as poor Fleetwood defending from a George Dobson corner allowed Ferrier to nod home from almost on the goal-line.
Walsall sealed the game in the 68th minute. Luke Leahy headed Liam Kinsella’s deep ball back across goal and Scarr’s close-range strike squirmed between Cairns’ legs.