Barton: We must be better than that

Relegation now looms large for Rovers following a familiar tale of woe at the Mem

JOEY Barton was left blaming some familiar problems after ten-man Bristol Rovers were pushed to the brink of relegation by Lincoln at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

In a must-win encounter for the Pirates, they fell behind on just 16 minutes to Anthony Scully’s fine finish, and Ed Upson’s sending-off shortly before half-time dented their hopes of a recovery.

Barton’s men battled hard to little real effect, and the 1-0 defeat leaves

Rovers six points from safety with just four games to play.

The 38-year-old Merseysider has often been left furious by refereeing performances throughout his twomonth tenure here, but he has been equally annoyed by Rovers’ knack of committing defensive mistakes and lack of cutting edge in the final third.

Scully’s match-winning strike was avoidable, stemming from a blocked Cian Harries clearance after the defender was played into trouble by Luke McCormick.

And despite Rovers’ committed efforts thereafter, they lacked the quality in attack to overturn the deficit and are well and truly staring down the barrel of relegation.

“We’ve got to take decisions out of the referee’s hands and be better than that and more clinical than that,” Barton admitted.

“At that point (Upson’s red card) we were still 1-0 down, so it gave us a mountain to climb, but we’ve got to be more effective.

“We looked like the side in the ascendancy, but then all of a sudden they came up the other end and the problems we’ve had for the last 42 games continued.”