Bristol Rovers’ postponed League One encounter with Shrewsbury Town will now take place on Tuesday, May 2, confirming a packed end to the 2022/23 campaign as the Gas will play their final nine fixtures inside 31 days.
Rovers were due to face Shrewsbury this Saturday at New Meadow but following the international call-ups of regular starters Luca Hoole (Wales Under-21), Jarell Quansah (England Under-20) and Lamare Bogarde (Netherlands Under-20), under EFL rules the Gas could apply for a postponement.
Coupled with the previous switching of the intended game at Plymouth Argyle from April 1 to April 25, Rovers’ run-in to the season has now been squeezed inside a small window with Joey Barton’s side playing a weekend fixture followed by a midweek game for three weeks in a row.
That will place added pressure on a squad that is unlikely to have midfielders Paul Coutts and Jordan Rossiter (both knee) or utility man Josh Grant (also knee) unavailable, while winger Harry Anderson (groin) could be back for the Charlton or Fleetwood Town game over the Easter Weekend, based on Barton’s previous prognosis.
Rovers are also still waiting for confirmation of the length of Quansah’s suspension following his dismissal against Portsmouth on Saturday in which the on-loan Liverpool centre-back was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Joe Morrell, with the visiting midfielder also claiming he was head-butted in the subsequent melee.
The Gas will play five of the current top seven and six of the top 10, which includes Shrewsbury, over the home straight finishing with a game against Bolton Wanderers at the Mem on Sunday, May 7. They also face a challenging run of four consecutive away games start with Port Vale and ending with the rearranged fixture at New Meadow.
- Friday, April, 7 vs Charlton Athletic (H)
- Monday, April 10 vs Fleetwood Town (A)
- Saturday, April 15 vs Derby County (H)
- Tuesday, April 18 vs Sheffield Wednesday (H)
- Saturday, April 22 vs Port Vale (A)
- Tuesday, April 25 vs Plymouth Argyle (A)
- Saturday, April 29 vs Peterborough United (A)
- Tuesday, May 2 vs Shrewsbury Town (A)
- Sunday, May 7 vs Bolton Wanderers (H)
Rovers are 10 points above the bottom four in League One (with Accrington Stanley in 21st hosting Plymouth on Tuesday night), and by the time they return to action on April 7 with the visit of Charlton Athletic to BS7 could theoretically have fallen a few more places in the standings.
Relegation remains highly unlikely with bookmakers pricing them between 50 and 100/1 to return to League Two while FiveThirtyEight give them a less than one per cent chance of slipping into the bottom four, based on their projections.
Although, on the one hand he said on Saturday he wished the season was over, frustrated over the lack of a tangible competitive goal for his squad, Barton has set a 52-point target for Rovers, which they are seven points shy of.
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