FLEETWOOD TOWN MANAGER Joey Barton accused Sunderland of playing “hoof ball” during the 1-1 draw between the sides in their League One fixture at the Stadium of Light.
Fleetwood, who moved into the play-off spots with Saturday’s win over Portsmouth, were on course for a sixth consecutive victory last night until Max Power scored for Sunderland with the last kick of the game.
The visitors had taken the lead in the fifth minute through Barrie McKay, who finished off a move which was engineered by Irish pair Paddy Madden and Glenn Whelan.
In the race for promotion to the Championship, Sunderland remain fourth in League One. The concession of the late equaliser pushes Fleetwood down to seventh, but only goal difference separates them from Peterborough United in the final play-off place. Fleetwood also have the benefit of a game in hand.
Despite being denied a victory in such dramatic circumstances, Barton taunted Sunderland over their style of play and the manner of their reaction to the late goal.
"They drenched the pitch all day because they're scared of little old Fleetwood Town!" 👀
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) February 26, 2020
Former Newcastle United midfielder Joey Barton had some choice words for Sunderland last night, saying they celebrated their equaliser like they'd won the World Cup...😬 pic.twitter.com/Jq81IfWHT5
“We’re a miles better team than them, in my opinion, when it comes to passing the ball,” the 37-year-old – who had a spell with Sunderland’s arch rivals Newcastle United during his playing career – told Sky Sports.
“We saw that in the build-up – they absolutely drenched the pitch all day because they’re scared of little old Fleetwood Town coming and out-playing them, they’ve gone to hoof ball. Credit to them, Max Power gambled and they got a goal.
“It was very, very interesting as a former Newcastle player to see Sunderland, who were in the Premier League three years ago, celebrate like they’d won the World Cup final having scored an equaliser in stoppage time against the mighty Fleetwood Town.”
Fleetwood, who were promoted to the Football League in 2012 for the first time in their history, have never before reached the heights of the Championship. The Lancashire club play their home games at Highbury Stadium, which has a capacity of just over 5,000.
Barton, who’s in his second season as Fleetwood manager, has seen his side storm into contention for promotion with a nine-match unbeaten run.
Ahead of Saturday’s game away to relegation-threatened Tranmere Rovers, he added: “We are in the mix. We should be above Sunderland tonight. If we meet Sunderland in the play-offs, would we be worried? I don’t think so.
“They are a big physical outfit. Phil Parkinson has got them going well but with that style of football, you’d rather watch us than Sunderland as we play football. They do sit above us in the table and that’s results, but as I said, there’s no time to sulk, there’s another war to come on Saturday.”
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Since they did away with the mindless violence the game has lost its appeal
It’s not really a great spectacle as a sport. Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal. Time to call a halt in my eyes especially when the Aussies could not be bothered to send over a proper team however gallant their intentions were .
“Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal.” Has anyone encouraged you to broaden your horizons?
Some (most) of us don’t speak Irish Louise. Should be commentary in English.
Have more faith in your ability to learn. It’s not all that difficult to listen to and understand the language.
Well considering you don’t have a grasp on the English language, I’m not surprised you cannot speak Gaeilge!! I can see why your glass is half empty, I think you mean “commentary should be through/ in English”… Ah the predictability of….;-)
Deborah,
1. “Well” should be followed by a comma.
2. “…grasp ‘of’ the English language”, not ‘on’.
Smarty pants
Load of crap it looked like Australia hadn’t a clue for the first quarter
Bring back the killings, that’s what made this pointless game for me!!! Zero atmosphere at the game too!!
Will ye relax. Its an opportunity our amateur players get to represent their Country. Reward for all the work and commitment they have given all year.
Well done Ireland and the 3 laois lads! Finish them off the next day.
Honestly it was a poor game. Expect a rough game next week.
Sh!te game.nothing at stake just looked like like a training match.
Pointless game
Patently false. 92 points were scored
If you don’t like this sport then don’t pay any heed to it. Simple.
There was a decent crowd there tonight and clearly sponsors and players embrace the concept so that’s why it’s still going. Nobody is being forced to watch it, if it doesn’t take your fancy that’s fine but there’s no need for everyone to bang on about how they think it’s pointless, just change the channel if it bothers you that much.
If you think the players “embrace the concept” you clearly did not watch the match. The Aussies didn’t even know the rules, and I can’t blame them. I was there and it was clear the lads were only over for a 2 week holiday and I’d do the same myself. Just glad it was only 15eur.
It’s a great game. Fast, exciting and has a well defined tackle, the bane of Football in my opinion. I think if it was marketed well, and played every year, it would be very popular.
The problem is it’s marketed badly.
Having the game on TG4 makes it difficult for non-Irish speakers to follow the rules.
You only hear about it a couple of weeks before it starts.
Having the first game in a regional venue is good in theory but seeing an empty terrance looks bad.
And the break it takes every 3 years is pointless and confusing.
The fact it’s on a Saturday night, is an international sport and is a physical game means it’s very marketable, especially to younger people. Some blood thumping adverts run during the all Ireland finals would generate huge interest and wouldn’t take a huge amount of effort.
I think with a bit more marketing and an attempt to improve the atmosphere, a la Leinster Rugby or American football, would really add to the occasion.
It’s almost as if the organisers, the GAA and AFL, aren’t sure if they want it to succeed or not.
TL;TR It’s a great game that would benefit from better marketing and showmanship.
Whatever about the merits of the game, I think it’s on its last legs, as there is literally zero interest in it in Australia. Even here in AFL-obsessed Melbourne, you wouldn’t know this game was on.
The main quality paper here – The Age – has a 20 page sport supplement every Sat and Sun. During the AFL season about 75% of that space is devoted to AFL. Yesterday (in the AFL off season), there were 2.5 pages devoted to AFL, of which about 1/8 of a page related to the international rules game. Today, there are 2 pages on AFL, with no mention of the international rules other than a single line informing readers that a match report is available online. It really says something when the international rules series is not even the main AFL-related story, at a time of year when there is no actual AFL taking place.
The writing is on the wall when you have a sport that is only relevant to two countries and one of those countries has completely lost interest.
Surely this is more to do with the timing of the game than lack of interest? It would have been impossible to get a match report onto the paper, due to the lateness of the kickoff.
It’s not that I expected a match report in the Sunday Age (obviously – the game took place on Sunday here!). But usually if an event is of interest the papers would have previews and other general coverage.
Anyway, it’s now Monday and the intl rules has been given about the same amount of space as Australian basketball and baseball (neither of which are very popular here). The game wasn’t even mentioned on any of the tv news shows I saw yesterday either.
Better than xfactor but that would not be difficult!!
That match wasn’t even mentioned in the media over here,as for cry factor its on EVERY single ad break,is every 10 minutes.
Bastardised rules. No thanks.
A mongrel game for a …
Every code of football has bastardised rules
Its a pity that genuine amatuer wholehearted GAA players were forced to pick between club and country for a series that the professional AFL pay lip service to
Rubbish sport, Mickey Harte was right
What is the point? It was on in the pub and that’s all I could think about it.
It’s an excuse to go to the pub
Well said. Any excuse is a good one.
We’ll done lad,s
Up Cavan
Welcome to World Trophy Football or wtf for short ,
Feck I missed the semi finals again…
‘Hilarious’
I’d probably watch it if they played the oval ball, atleast give the Aussies a chance since there not allowed to apply mindless thuggery anymore.
I heard there was 275,000 at the match and they were all speaking Irish, even the aboriginals, who probably discovered Australia, having set off from west cork in 6000bc with a cargo of stone hurleys and Gaelic poetry. Long before the British I might add. It’s a matter of great pride to the 42,000,000 members of the GAA. As joe brolly once said “god I’m great ammant I, hi”
Gold
It’s horrendously bad.
Why is this game always played with a round ball? Not very fair on the Aussies is it?
Worst game of football I’ve ever been too!!!
Absolutely dead match…….,
Ah shut up god we are a nation of f##king begrudgers well done lads from all of us in Oz anythime we beat the “worlds most sporting nation” is a good day for me..
Suppose this is the gaa world cup final?