McCormick set for bigger things now
JOEY Barton says Bristol Rovers need to keep hold of their best players to mount a promotion challenge next season, but the exit of one leading light is out of his control, writes Sam Frost.
Luke McCormick’s outstanding loan spell will end after Sunday’s trip to Blackpool, with the club’s relegation to Sky Bet League Two for next season already settled.
McCormick, who is on loan from Chelsea, will not follow the Pirates into the fourth tier, and Sunday’s match at Bloomfield Road will be his final outing in the blue and white quarters – he is fit enough to play, having been withdrawn from last Saturday’s squad at the last minute.
Regardless of whether he wears the shirt one more time, the 22-year-old, below, has done himself proud, departing with a wave of goodwill from supporters that have never seen him play in the flesh, save for the hardy handful who once stood on a hill in Northampton.
Six goals and two assists for a player in his first full season of senior football are impressive in their own right, but it has been the mentality, the crunching challenges and the relentless engine that has made him the outlier of a team which collapsed in a heap long before the finish line was in sight.
Championship side Millwall are the first club reportedly interested in taking McCormick on, and they certainly will not be the only ones chasing a player who has grown immensely in his nine months as a Rovers player.
In the first weeks of his stint, he prompted more groans from the press bench than any other player, such was the frustration he could cause with his decision-making on the ball. That did not last long though, and before Christmas he was emerging into a livewire presence in midfield.
More responsibility has been heaped on him as the season has worn on and under Barton he has been the key man in the midfield, relishing the responsibility while still scoring five goals since Christmas – all of which make for an impressive highlight reel.
McCormick would have hoped for a more successful period of work experience in a functioning team. But how often do observers complain that academy players have it too easy? If he has enjoyed a sheltered football education in the most private of schools at the Blues’ Cobham base, his time at Rovers has been a crash course at the University of Life.