As Bristol Rovers prepare to face League Two's set-piece masters Northampton Town on Saturday, Joey Barton believes Connor Taylor could learn a thing or two from his Cobblers counterparts.
No team in the fourth tier has scored more set-play goals than Northampton's 21 this season, with centre-back duo Fraser Horsfall and Jon Guthrie netting eight and six league goals respectively.
Rovers are no mugs from dead ball situations either, ranking fourth in the league with 14 set-piece goals, but Barton believes his side could be more productive. The manager can have no complaints with 20-year-old Taylor's dominant defensive play on loan from Stoke City, but he believes the towering centre-half should have more than just one goal – in the comeback win at Walsall in September – in his account this season.
"Once Connor Taylor learns to direct those headers on target, I think we’ll be alright," Barton said. "He’s had so many good chances over the season.
"He really could be sitting with five or six goals and I think that is the next part of his development, putting the ball in the back of the net because I think if you carry that threat as a defensive player it can be a huge benefit for the team.
"The lads they’ve got, Horsfall and Guthrie, they’re a lot further down the track in terms of experience than our lads. Obviously, they’ve had a great goalscoring season for Northampton.
"(Mitch) Pinnock’s delivery and the two lads being aggressive and a goalscoring threat has been a huge part of their arsenal."
Barton made clear his respect for second-placed Northampton, insisting they are much more than a side solely reliant on profiting from set-plays while keeping it tight at the back.
"In open play they’re a good side," Barton said. "They’re no mugs.
"It looked like Ali Koiki came off early in the game last time out, so it seems he’ll be injured for them. I know Ali from his time here and he didn’t have the best run of injuries here. If he misses the game on Saturday, it looks like that is injury-enforced and that will be a positive for us because he and (Aaron) McGowan at full-back really create the width for Northampton, they are a real attacking threat.
"The two lads peeling off the sides, they’ve got goalscoring threat in (Sam) Hoskins in midfield, so they’re a really good side. We know we’ll have to be at our best in all departments, not just the set-piece area if we’re going to be successful on Saturday.
"With (Mitch) Pinnock’s delivery and (Fraser) Horsfall and (Jon) Guthrie, they have that threat from the set-piece area, but they’ve also got a lot of competent players, a lot of good players in open play.
"We’ve had a skirmish with them at our place. We managed to win that game having gone down to 10 men.
"They’ll know what we’re going to do, they’ll be well versed and it will be two sides that know each other really well as we get into this and it will be the team that handles the occasion and does the basics superbly on the day that will progress.
"The teams are closely matched and we’re looking forward to it. A tough away fixture and one where we can grab a lot of momentum from should we win."
Rovers moved into the top seven for the first time this season with the victory over Colchester United on Tuesday. Three points on Saturday could take them level with Northampton and into the top three.
Barton, though, has made clear that there is no change in Rovers' mentality despite reaching a position they have been chasing since the start of the season for the first time with nine games to play.
"Of course not," Barton insisted. "We know there are nine games to go and lots of teams are scrapping away and everybody in this division so far has been hugely competitive. Every match we’ve had since the campaign started.
"I do feel it is setting up the league table for an exciting end for the neutral. From our perspective, we’ve got to keep doing what we’re doing, keep turning up for each other.
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"There are going to be lots of twists and turns between now and the end of the season and we’ve just got to make sure in every match situation we take maximum points, just what the lads have been doing since the turn of the year.
"You get an opportunity to leapfrog or go level with teams who are very close in the table, but if you win on Saturday you’re not promoted, and equally, if you lose Saturday your season is not over.
"It’s all to play for, but again for us, nothing changes. It is a top-end-of-the-table clash now. The table is so compact behind Forest Green, who are out in front and we’ve got to make sure we turn up and give a great account of ourselves.
"If we do, that’s been enough to take points out of games, and if we don’t then we’ll get what we deserve, which will be nothing."
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