'He's done a fantastic job': Joey Barton praises Phil Parkinson and reveals his verdict on Sunderland's season start

Parkinson will take his side to Highbury this evening to face a Fleetwood side who are fresh off the back of a 5-1 win over Plymouth Argyle.

And while Sunderland enter the clash without a win in their last four games in all competitions, former Newcastle United midfielder Barton says he fails to understand why Parkinson is under pressure at the Stadium of Light – having hailed the Wearsiders as one of the best teams he came up against last term.

"I think Phil’s under pressure from what I hear, but I don’t see how,” said Barton, speaking at his pre-match press conference.

“He’s done a fantastic job. For me, they were probably top two or three in terms of teams we played last year who caused us problems – and that was home and away.

“We were probably lucky to draw the home game, and the away game they were lucky to draw it and got a last minute.

“We got a little bit lucky because we had the points-per-game and had a decent run to get into the play-offs, and I think them and Peterborough were unlucky to miss out.

“This season, they’ve started very solidly again. Very low xG in terms of chances against them and they’ve just gone on a little bit of an iffy spell in terms of getting beat by Mansfield, MK and obviously Donny scored a late goal against them last time.

“They’ll be competitive because Phil’s sides are always organised, always competitive.

“They’ve got good players, big expectations because of the size of their football club but they will be a wounded animal, due to their recent results.

"It will be a very tough game for us, they will fancy their chances and won’t be worrying about coming to Fleetwood and we look forward to that challenge.

“We’re in a slot where we are happy to play anyone and we’ve played most of the sides in the division now and every game is an opportunity for us to learn something new about our team.”

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