Owner and club legend back Rovers boss Barton
back to square one. If you look at Joey throughout his career, he’s flourished from rising from these situations of difficulty. And I believe this will happen at Rovers.”
Failings on the field have begun to reflect on the club hierarchy itself, with supporters holding those who put Barton in charge, and the appointments of Ben Garner and Paul Tisdale, responsible.
Al-Qadi, chief executive officer Martyn Starnes and the club’s head of recruitment Tommy Widdrington, who has taken on a reduced role during the Barton regime, have been particular targets of criticism from the fan-base.
“I’m very happy with the board we have, people are unfair to give that criticism. They do give their all for the club,” Al-Qadi added, having spent several millions in covering
Rovers’ losses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“People are emotional when you lose, and when you lose at home, and it’s been like this for two years.
“It’s frustrating as a club. We are desperate to get out of this, Joey is desperate to get out of this, the players are desperate to get out of this. Please remember we’ve been through the most horrible time, not only us, everybody has. Thank God, Bristol Rovers is still around and that’s due to the hard work of the people at the club.”
Meanwhile, Rovers legend Ian Holloway believes sacking Barton is the wrong option and has indicated that the club should use this season to consolidate in League Two as opposed to thinking of immediate promotion.
Holloway insists Rovers need a sense of continuity and consistency in the dugout, having had three managers in the last 11 months, four if you count the brief stint of Tommy Widdrington as caretaker.
“Immediate promotion? I just want to get a couple of back to back wins! That’ll do!” Holloway said.
“Seriously, I’m not looking like that. We’ve had a terrible period where I believe people at the top of the club have made some terrible mistakes. They sacked Ben Garner when he’d just started to win. He had his best month and they got rid of him. Then the bloke they replaced him with (Paul Tisdale), they got rid of him in 12 weeks, and now Joey Barton has been left holding the can.
“Now they’re trying to support him which I hope they do, and we’ve had too much of a changeover of players, too much of a changeover of manager and they need some stability.”
With fellow strugglers Carlisle the visitors to the Memorial Stadium on Saturday, a negative result could lead to a toxic atmosphere, far worse than what unfolded last weekend.
But Holloway, who managed the club from 1996-2001, insists fans need to keep the faith and remain patient with the team and manager.
There are, after all, still 36 games of the season remaining and the gap to the top seven in the division is only five points despite the club’s rather underwhelming start.
“I’ve been saying it all along, what we’ve got to do as Bristol Rovers fans, is make sure that we’re behind the team. Last week away at Walsall, we had 1,000 people there,” Holloway added. “All I’m saying is, what I don’t want to do is keep moaning. I am a Bristol Rovers supporter, I come from Bristol, I’m very proud of it, and I support by far and away the worst team in Bristol at the moment, because league position tells you that. But for me they’re the best team in Bristol by a mile!”
mixture of empty seats, as many fans had left before the end of the game, plus boos and cries for the manager to leave the club, including in the corporate boxes around where the Rovers owner sits.
However, having brought Barton to the club in February following the dismissal of Paul Tisdale, Al-Qadi, left, is standing by his manager.
“The start of the season hasn’t been the start we wanted, but the board has full support for Joey and the squad,” Al-Qadi said.
“A change of manager will bring us