Fleetwood Town have confirmed the deadline day signing of Lewis Gibson from Everton, who joins the club on loan until the end of the season.

Joey Barton has been very active in this transfer window, bringing in four players, in the form of Lewie Coyle on a permanent basis, Glenn Whelan on a free transfer, young ‘keeper Szymon Czajor from Poland, and Callum Connolly on-loan from Everton.

Connolly has now been joined by one of his Everton teammates at Highbury as Lewis Gibson joins the club on loan until the end of the season.

The 19-year-old centre-back has been a somewhat regular feature for the under-23s this season at Goodison Park, making seven appearances in the Premier League Two, along with featuring in their under-21 side’s EFL Trophy campaign this season.

Having lost Peter Clarke to Tranmere Rovers and Nathan Sheron on-loan to Walsall, Joey Barton has been keen to bring in a centre-back this window to bolster his squad ahead of a promotion push in the back end of the season.

The Cod Army currently sit just six points off the play-offs after a run of six games without a victory and need to turn their form around to get back on track.

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The verdict

Barton has recruited fairly strongly this season with major defensive reinforcements strengthening his side’s push for the play-offs.

Fleetwood are currently caught in the middle of not scoring a bunch of goals, but also having a steady defence, meaning they aren’t quite showing signs of being play-off worthy just yet.

They appear to be going down the route of bolstering their defence in an attempt to concede less and relieve the pressure on the forwards to score more, especially after letting Ashley Hunter go out on-loan.

Gibson will be getting his first taste of first-team football having never made a senior appearance for both Everton and Newcastle United in his time at both clubs.