Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Jaakkola is still unable to feature, says Barton
BRISTOL Rovers goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola is expected to remain on the sidelines with an Achilles injury for another seven to ten days, Joey Barton has revealed.
The Finland international has been absent from the Rovers matchday squad since the 1-0 win over Oldham, after feeling some discomfort in his previously injured Achilles during the home defeat against Stevenage three weeks ago.
Since then, James Belshaw has been the man in goal for the Pirates and has so far been a calming presence in between the sticks, minus the torrid first-half display from the whole team at Exeter.
It looked as though it was a minor issue for Jaakkola and the 34-yearold would be back in contention for last Saturday’s trip to Barrow, but Barton has since confirmed that Jaakkola aggravated the problem again in training and therefore will not be available against Crawley this afternoon.
“A week ago on Monday, he said he’d felt the best he’d ever felt” said Barton. “He missed the Exeter game as a precaution, he then felt really good in training and it had settled down. But then he just slipped at the back end of training just moving across the goal-line, his back foot slipped and he felt a little twinge.
“The physios have managed to calm that and calm his mind as well, which is important. So he’s a week, maybe ten days away from being back in contention.”
Belshaw, who joined the club from Harrogate in the summer, had been the number one for his entire fouryear spell in Yorkshire, which included helping them achieve two promotions. But even after returning slightly later than most to Bristol, due to his participation with Finland at Euro 2020, Jaakkola started the opening game in League Two away at Mansfield.
However, since his injury, Belshaw has returned to being number one choice, something that Barton admits Jaakkola may struggle to get back as quickly as he may have done in previous years.
“We’ve got competition for places for the first time. I don’t think he’s had that in the past, I think he’s had people be in there for him when he’s injured,” Barton said.
“Belly (James Belshaw) has come in and done superb and obviously we’ve got young Jed Ward coming up behind that who’s hungry and keen.
“For me I don’t really care about age, if you’re good enough and you’re performing well enough, you’ll play.
“We’ve all been a young player thrown in at the deep end and it’s sink or swim and I think Jed showed Tuesday night he’s not going to be a million miles away.
“He possibly needs a loan, but I think young Jed has shown just what a good young keeper he is and is going to be. So, I’ve got some nice options in there and that competition for places drives the building.”
As well as Jaakkola’s confirmed absence for the visit of Crawley, it is unlikely that the newest members of the squad will be heavily involved immediately.
Antony Evans, Junior Brown and Leon Clarke were all confirmed as Rovers players following the win over Cheltenham on Tuesday night, but are unlikely to feature today.
“We’ve got a few guys in a mini pre-season at this moment.” Barton said. “We’ve probably got to schedule a couple of in-house games to get them up to speed.”
Forest Green Rovers head coach Rob Edwards insists he has been impressed by the attitude of his squad after their trickiest week of the season so far.
After four wins out of four in Sky Bet League Two and excellent efforts in the EFL Cup against Bristol City and Brentford, the Green Devils lost 2-0 at home to Port Vale in the fourth tier before drawing with Northampton and losing on penalties in the EFL Trophy in midweek.
Asked what he had learned about his side during the past week, boss Edwards said: “I think we’re always learning about them. It’s really just confirmed that they’ve got a good attitude, personality and some real character.
“It’s impossible to be at your best every game, but one thing we can commit to is the intensity that we play at, and that was the one thing that we were disappointed with on Saturday (against Port Vale).
“But I want to move past that because that was last week. It’s confirmed things rather than learning new things about them.”
On today’s opponents Exeter, Edwards added: “They’re a good team, especially at home. They’ll want to start fast and put us under pressure early.
“They started really well against Bristol Rovers and scored four firsthalf goals. We have to make sure that we don’t give them the game they want. We have to be professional. We need to manage the game well, but we need to be intense.”