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18th Feb 2017

Nobody is buying Joey Barton’s defence of his behaviour against Lincoln

Not having it

Darragh Murphy

Non-league Lincoln knocked Premier League side Burnley out of the FA Cup but all anybody could talk about was Joey Barton.

Barton, as he has been known to do, stole all the headlines thanks to an incident that took place during Saturday’s early kick-off at Turf Moor.

The controversial midfielder, who re-signed with Burnley until the end of the season, was tasked with marking Lincoln centre-forward Matt Rhead for set pieces.

Barton earned plenty of contempt when he appeared to stamp backwards and dig his studs into Rhead’s foot before hitting the deck under very little contact, seemingly in an attempt to get the striker sent off.

https://twitter.com/gabe_roche03/status/832952630171336704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Barton was booked later on in the game for his role in a skirmish and he didn’t take long to respond to the waves of online criticism as he took to Twitter in the moments immediately following the defeat.

This is how Barton attempted to explain his actions…

Unsurprisingly, that reasoning wasn’t well received by more sceptical Twitter users.