Fleetwood Town boss Joey Barton believes one win can revitalise their season

Joey Barton has total faith in his Fleetwood forwards to find top form

Town have drawn seven of their last nine League One games but the manager feels they could be on the verge of an all-important winning run.

“I think we’re very close. The final bits are the hardest,” he said.

“We ended last season with a lot of draws – that’s consolidation, that’s a team that competes every week and is difficult to beat. But that isn’t what you want if you are chasing promotion.

“To be a top team you need to convert some of those draws into wins. Top players and match-winners do that for you.

“We’ve got to get the ones we have in the building back on form. We need something to go in off somebody’s backside and we’ll be up and running.

“We’ve never doubted the frontline because they will get goals for us and when that drops back in we could be in for a good spell.”

The positive side of back-to-back goalless draws is that Town have tightened up.

Barton said: “We’re learning to defend our box. Glenn Whelan was superb against Coventry. Jack Sowerby did a great job out of position.

“Lewie Coyle was brilliant. Callum Connolly slotted straight back in and Soutts (Harry Souttar) has benefited from being a middle centre-back.”