Newport show Rovers are miles off promotion pace
Talking points from Bristol Rovers’ defeat to Newport County at the Memorial Stadium, by
AS League Two’s promotion hopefuls hit their stride, Joey Barton’s Bristol Rovers continue to stumble.
Steps forward are quickly followed by trips and falls as the gap between the Gas and the leading pack widens following a 3-1 defeat to Newport County at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
Inconsistency and defensive frailty have plagued Rovers all season, and those patterns continued against the Exiles as Barton’s side shipped their 21st, 22nd and 23rd goals of the campaign. They were fortunate it was not more. Newport were the sixth side in all competitions to rock up in BS7 and claim victory this season, with Rovers nothing like the contenders Gasheads were assured they would be.
A CHASM IN QUALITY BARTON MUST BRIDGE
THE Gas have showed signs of improvement in recent weeks, but a shallow dive into their results this season unearths a worrying trend that continued on Saturday.
In Rovers’ seven games against sides now in 13th place or better in League Two, Barton’s side have failed to win a single game and have accrued just two points.
So Rovers can have absolutely no complaints about their position in this league and they certainly cannot justify any kind of superiority complex.
When they play good teams, they have fallen woefully short - particularly in the home defeats to Swindon Town, Leyton Orient and Newport who have combined for nine goals at the Mem this season.
Rovers have been able to scramble wins over average and belowaverage teams in and around them in the lower reaches of the table, but whenever Barton has been
required to win a tactical battle against clubs with promotion credentials he and his players have fallen short.
The defeat to the Exiles was no different. Newport have underachieved in the early months of the campaign, perhaps suffering a
hangover from their play-off final defeat, but even with a manager overseeing his first game in professional management they were more organised and poised than the Gas.
High standards were set by Barton to start the season, with the P-word (promotion) dropped time and again, but 14 games in - despite some improvements - the Gas are miles off the pace. Eight points separate them from the top seven, indicative of the chasm in quality that Barton has to bridge.
REVISED EXPECTATIONS
TWO weeks shy of the three-month mark of the campaign, the paint is drying on the picture of this team.
After some steps forward in the past month, Rovers reversed with the grace and decorum of the lorry
which plunged into the harbour this week. Only Scunthorpe United have a worse defence than Rovers, who have shipped 23 goals in the opening 14 games. Promotions are built from the back but Rovers do not appear capable of repelling competent attacks.
With individual mistakes, which led to the second and third goals, to contend with as well, the to-do list for the manager makes for ugly reading.
Barton admitted in his postmatch press conference Rovers’ performance against Newport made him “worry” about his team’s capability of reaching the top seven. Expectations are being revised and many fans have completed that process already. If Rovers carry on like this, soon Gasheads
will be worrying about hitting the 50-point mark; a stark contrast to the vision for this season that was painted by the manager over the summer.
Rovers still have time to change paths and make something of this campaign, but it is hard to have faith when they are coming up short against mid-table sides or better.
THE PITMAN FACTOR
ONE of the few redeeming qualities of the 90 minutes served up by the Gas on Saturday was Brett Pitman’s resounding statement of his rare quality in the penalty area.
Rovers were on the brink of being knocked out of the contest before half-time, but their top scorer conjured a moment of inspiration from absolutely nothing to give Barton’s side a glimmer of hope.
Sam Nicholson’s cross was not good, but the veteran poacher managed to make something of it, using his nous to ease Aaron Lewis out of the way before unleashing a bullet into the top corner on the turn. Pitman’s fourth League Two goal of the season counted for nothing in the end, but there is a lesson Rovers need to learn here.
The striker has scored in three successive league games, with all three goals coming from crosses. The Gas need to get the 33-year-old as many touches as possible in the box because this is a goalscorer capable of turning a bad cross into a good one. For a Rovers side clearly searching for confidence, Pitman’s inherent scoring instinct should be a source for optimism.