"Maverick" Barrie McKay finally seeing his patience rewarded says Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson

The loan winger from Swansea City has started Fleetwood s last five games, scoring the winner at AFC Wimbledon on Easter Monday and again at Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.

However, the 26-year-old was unseen for seven weeks in the early stages of Grayson's reign, though this did include a period in which McKay was suffering from Covid.

Grayson explained: “Barrie is a talent and he hasn’t played at the level he has done and been at the clubs he has without being a talent.

“He was a bit unfortunate with having Covid when I first came to the club and predominantly we have played with three centre-backs.

“It is only in the last few weeks we have been able to fit him in as a number 10 playing off the striker.

“When I first got here it was about making the team solid and giving us an opportunity to build to where we are now as a football club.

“Sometimes you can’t put Barry’s type of player in when it’s a bit of a scrap and a battle, when the pitches are not great and you are low on confidence. He has had to be patient but today he was great.

"He has been in the Championship with Forest and Swansea, which shows what he is all about. He is probably a typical exciting player who on his day can be an eight or nine out of 10 player and then sometimes be a four or five.

"That's the maverick type these players are but he hasproduced another good performance, which he has done over the last couple of weeks.

"And Harrison Biggins and Sam Finley have not played a lot of football recently but showed a lot of qualities as well."

As for McKay's third goal of the season, Grayson also praised keeper Alex Cairns for heeding a half-time instruction.

He explained: "We said at half-time we wanted the goalkeeper not to kick it as far and try to drop it in to Campsy (Callum Camps).

"He did and that and Campsy played it out to McKay, who grew into the game and certainly looked a major threat when he was getting the ball and running at people. It was a great goal and we could have had a few more."

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