Normally you’d tread carefully with this sort of declaration of fact, applying liberal caveats, but being so polite would be looked down upon in the Mem at present: Bristol Rovers are just three points outside the play-offs.
Yes, we are only 21 games deep in a season that already feels like an epic and we’re barely into the cut and thrust of December. There is a lot of football still to be played, but the Gas are unmistakably a team trending upwards and with every reason to believe that while dips surely lie ahead, they shouldn’t waver too much from such a trajectory under Joey Barton.
Saturday’s 1-0 win over Port Vale means they have taken 20 points from a possible 33 since the start of October and with the sense that this group are still developing, learning, figuring out how to play together and adapting to life in League One. Five of these games have ended in draws and the margins between mid-table and the top six aren’t perhaps as great as first envisaged back in the summer.
