Joey Barton: Why one-goal wins are vital for Fleetwood

It was Fleetwood's third successive League One game to be decided by a single goal, though the previous results against Northampton Town and Blackpool had gone against them.

Since scoring nine goals in two matches last month, Barton's side have found the net only twice in five but the head coach believes the low-scoring contests are critical.

Barton said: “It’s all very well beating teams by comfortable margins, but it’s your 1-0s and wins by close margins that are the ones you find are so important – to grind out those clean sheets and wins from difficult away performances."

And it was a difficult afternoon for Fleetwood at the County Ground, where Swindon responded resolutely after Paddy Madden's 41st Football League goal for Town - equalling David Ball's club record.

Barton added: “First half we were relatively comfortable, and even up until we made the substitutions we were in control and looked as though we were maybe going to nick another one on the counter-attack.

“And then, like every team, at some point they’re going to have moments in the game, and at the end they’ve got nothing to lose and they were going for it.

"We had to rely on some good defending and some good goalkeeping to keep the clean sheet intact.

“In terms of handling the game, there are going to be difficult moments on the road, and during the course of the season you’re going to have to batten down the hatches and show a different side sometimes."

Barton says the pitch was another factor in trickly afternoon for his side: "“Sometimes the bounce wasn’t great on Saturday," he added.

"You had to take care because it bounced where it shouldn’t bounce some of the time and you have to negate that.”