Joey Barton doubles down in attack on 17-year-old female goalkeeper

Joey Barton has hit back at claims he is 'bullying' 17-year-old Partick Thistle goalkeeper Ava Easdon following the youngster's performance between the sticks in the Sky Sports Cup final at the weekend.

After Rangers' first goal in the showpiece event - their 4-1 victory was shown on Sky Sports - Easdon was criticised on social media and the former Man City and QPR midfielder joined in.

He shared a clip of the goal and said: 'I mean let’s just talk about the goalie! How is this nonsense on the box?'

Easdon's father - a seven-time kickboxing world champion - took to social media to  label the former Rangers midfielder a 'bully', with Rangers star Nicola Docherty leaping to Easdon's defence on social media, claiming the teenager is 'inspiring the next generation', while avoiding Barton's name.

However Barton his since responded to those claims and called for Sky Sports to take Women's football off air, insinuating that women's football would never be 'as big as' the men's game as a result of 'biological evolution'.

He wrote: 'Come on Nicola. One tweet about a clip. She’s had more publicity about this than she or her dad deserves based on their actual ability. It shouldn’t be on a paid subscription channel because it’s sub-standard quality to most football.

'Ran the "Bullying" headlines and father a "kickboxing champion".

'Will youse all behave and put those victim, girl power cards away. They don’t work on people with a brain.

'Lesbo-Ball will never be as big as Men’s football, no matter how much you virtue signal. Ya too slow and ya not going to change that. It’s called biological evolution.

'Have a great day. Don’t be a victim.'

He re-posted the tweet that he claims originally drew 'bullying' labels, which saw him question why