Joey Barton put himself back in the spotlight after his Fleetwood side almost snatched three points from in-form Sunderland.
Ahead of the fixture, Sunderland boss Phil Parkinson sung the praises of Barrie McKay and he didn’t have to wait long to wish he hadn’t. The Scot
McKay almost opened the scoring after just 21 seconds, firing a low shot into the legs of Sunderland goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin.
Not long after, he did get his rewards. Paddy Madden released him into the 18-yard area, and he easily turned Jordan Willis and calmly finished to give Fleetwood the lead.
Chris Maguire hit the crossbar and Lynden Gooch fired wide before halftime, but after the break, an edgy game saw few chances from either side. Fleetwood were content to run the clock down, looking for their sixth win on the spin.
Instead, with six minutes of injury time following their timewasting efforts, the home side levelled. Duncan Watmore found midfielder Max Power 12-yards out and he made no mistake with the last kick of the game.
Afterwards, Barton claimed his side deserved all three points, something that was meant with amusement from a large number of Sunderland fans.
Thanks for the 6 mins of stoppage for time wasting. Enjoy those sour grapes on the way back ??
— Humraj Singh Narang (@mackem_1) February 25, 2020
Sunderland lumping it but you were playing nice football. You played 20% more long balls even though you only had 50% of Sunderland’s possession pic.twitter.com/XQjG6suTZS
— clintos (@mackemcafu2) February 25, 2020
You’re rattled mate
— CPP (@c_parker_platt) February 25, 2020
So so predictable after match script, and so desperate to stay in the spot light. Give your ego a rest mate, and let your players take the credit for a decent performance albeit one laced with gamesmanship which ultimately came back to bite you on the backside.
— Peter Beuster (@PeterBeuster) February 25, 2020
Set Fleetwood up well to frustrate safc imo last night but we were poor. Post match interview,..That's why @Joey7Barton will never b at the top of the game, zero class, awful human being!..
— patrick oakley (@patty1981JN) February 26, 2020
I’ve never seen such a display of gamesmanship and poor sportsmanship in all my 50 odd years of watching football. It was an absolute disgrace! I’m just so glad that justice was done in the end!
— Judy Simpson, fan of Sunderland AFC (@judysimpson222) February 25, 2020
You’re a failure Joey, this just adds to what has been a very unsuccessful career in football.
— BFC82 (@BC8212) February 26, 2020
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