SEAN McConville and Joey Barton's dads were teammates for Knowsley United a generation ago.

On Saturday, McConville and Barton junior faced off in League One with the Stanley man grabbing the last word.

His equaliser cancelled out Cian Bolger's opener for the hosts and ensured both teams extended their unbeaten league runs to seven games and left Barton reflecting on a familiar face thwarting his side.

"We go way back," the 37-year-old said of the connection. "Jimmy Bell (Stanley assistant manager) played with my dad at Knowsley United and Sean McConville's dad Peter played in the same team.

"It is great that they are doing fantastically well, I am obviously disappointed they did well today but it was a good finish and he (McConville) is a good player. That is the reason Bradford tried to buy him in the summer, he is a quality player at this level and you know he is going to be a threat but we are disappointed as we want to shut teams out and keep clean sheets."

Barton felt his side were worthy of a point but acknowledged the threat Stanley carried and praised John Coleman's men for their performance, although he felt his side had under-performed.

"Accrington are a good side and they have caused lots of sides problems but if we did what we practised from Monday to Friday then we would have caused them a lot more problems," added the Fleetwood boss.

"That is the difficulty of being a manager, sometimes when the lads cross the white line and they get in the game the brains don't work as well as they do on the training ground and that is frustrating.

"But we are learning and I can't expect the lads to be perfect but to this point they have been exceptional and we are now seven unbeaten in the league."

The result leaves both sides in the top half with Stanley 10th, two points behind Barton's men and the Fleetwood chief felt it was an opportunity missed for his side.

"It is a game where I know we could have played a lot better for sure, but credit to Accrington who came here with a similar run of results to us, with one defeat coming in the opening match of the season," he added.

“They have consolidated their form, and we knew it was going to be a tough game from the beginning. Accrington have great team spirit and it was a really physical games of football played in the right manner.

“We were definitely the second best team, and probably scored against the run of play.

“When you get yourself into that position and come out in the second half like we did, causing them a lot of problems, you have to go and make it 2-0.

“Credit again to Accrington, they kept fighting and pushing and made a few offensive changes and then got themselves back into the game.”