Fleetwood boss Joey Barton well prepared to face potent Brewers

Long-serving boss Nigel Clough left the Brewers due to financial constraints and the Covid crisis, so there will be a new face in the opposition dugout for Barton to pit his wits against.

He said: “Jake Buxton has gone in there and he’ll be wanting to enforce his principles. He was a solid player. I’ve done a lot of research on them and I’ve seen they are a decent side.

“They drew 3-3 at Peterborough in the EFL Trophy and we know what they’re like. Joe Powell, Stephen Quinn, Michael Bostwick –real senior campaigners in the midfield. They have Lucas Akins, who I think is a fantastic player and always causes problems for us.

“Then they have some experience in the backline in John Brayford and they’ve brought in Neal Eardley from Lincoln City. We know it will be a tough encounter and we want to give a good account of ourselves.

“It’s important for us to get the home wins going again. Our two previous campaigns have been built on us being really solid at Highbury, and if we want to be successful this season we need to pick up where we left off from the last campaign.”

Danny Andrew alone remains from last season’s back-line and it is an area Barton aims to bolster with the transfer window open for another month.

“We’ve lost Souttar, Coyle and Gibson,” he said. “Those were big characters and big components of our team being successful, so we’re going to want to make some moves.

“We’ve brought in Morgan Boyes and Sam Stubbs this week on top of James Hill and Harrison Holgate, but I think we’re definitely looking to recruit at least one more player.

“It will be a case of quality – we only bring players into the club who are able to drive us forward as a group.

“We won’t just recruit for rectuitment’s sake because we’ve got some good young players. They are ours and we want to develop them.

“If there’s quality in the market and it’s the right value for us, we’re always looking to upgrade and add good players to our club. I don’t think that will ever change.

“Thankfully we’ve got a defender in this week in Sam Stubbs and it sends the right messages.

“We’re very strong in the midfield and front-line because of the players we’ve already got. It’s about waiting for the dominos to fall and making sure we get the right players for our football club.”