Joey Barton has hailed Rangers loanee Jason Holt after the midfielder fired Fleetwood Town to a 1-1 draw away at Crewe Alexandra, with the Cod Army eventually winning the EFL Cup tie on penalties.

Fleetwood fell behind at Gresty Road just after the half hour mark when Ryan Wintle scored for the hosts.




Barton turned to Holt at the half time break and the midfielder hit a superb shot from the edge of the box in the 52nd minute to level the tie.

No further goals arrived and at the end of the 90 minutes, Fleetwood won 4-3 on penalties, with Ashley Hunter scoring the decisive spot-kick.
 


Barton, who played alongside Holt at Rangers, was full of praise for the midfielder and thinks he should have had a brace at Gresty Road.

"He’s a tremendous player. That was the reason we wanted to bring him to the football club", Barton told his post-match press conference.

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"After we made a lot of changes to the squad such is my confidence in the squad, we’ve got some good players at this football club and we were confident to get them in.

"The wee man comes on and showcases just what a phenomenal little player he is.

"He should’ve had a second goal, we looked back at the incident and he was actually level, which we felt in real time", the Fleetwood boss added.

Holt's loan at Fleetwood is due to run until the end of the season and it remains to be seen if Barton will look to try to keep him on a permanent basis.

The Gers snapped Holt up from Hearts in 2015.