Joey Barton claims a Christmas team-bonding weekend in Dublin has energised the Bristol Rovers squad and brought them closer together as they look to continue their strong form against Charlton Athletic this weekend.
The Rovers squad, minus coaching staff, departed for the Irish capital in the wake of the 1-1 draw at Bolton Wanderers, as that fixture took place on a Friday night due to the World Cup so they were afforded a full weekend before reconvening at The Quarters.
With 11 new signings in 2022/23, including Josh Coburn and Scott Sinclair who didn't arrive until late September and early October, respectively, and a busy schedule of 29 matches inside 136 days since the season kicked off - one every 4.9 days - a number of individuals haven’t been able to bond with their teammates beyond football-related chat at the training ground and on a matchday.
Having explored all of what Dublin has to offer in terms of social spots, Barton believes the trip has moulded the group together further, helping breed a positive collective culture and is reminiscent of the trip to Cheltenham in March, which sparked a sensational run of form for the Gas culminating in promotion from League Two.
Rovers are already in good touch, having lost just one of their last 11 League One fixtures and lie just three points outside the play-offs, but with five of their next six games against sides below them in the table, their positioning could improve even further.
“For me, I’ve got an easy job because we’ve got a fantastic dressing room, a fantastic coaching culture and the lads respect the two-way street of that,” Barton said.
“The most pleasing thing for me because of the results profile, the lads won an extra day off because of the 10-game block and they had 3-4 days on a Christmas do, which consolidates your personal relationships.
“As a manager, you’re always worried that somebody gets nicked, or somebody does something stupid or they have too much ale and it impacts it. But our lads have been superb, a fantastic result and performance at the weekend (against Port Vale), and obviously backed that up Tuesday night (against MK Dons) so it says a lot about where our squad’s at.
“As a player, sometimes the Christmas Party can be the making of a lot of people because you get to meet people away from the training ground and get to know them from a different perspective and sometimes they can make fantastic bonds and certainly improve your team culture.
“Our group, you remember last year, the lads went to Cheltenham just before we played Northampton - that solidified the culture and it looks, on the showing against MK Dons, four or five of our lads - and one of them might be in the room [looks at Luke McCormick] just needed a couple of Guinnesses to remember what a top player he is.”
Charlton were considered an outside bet for a play-off challenge this season but, with the Addicks 18th in the table and winless in the league since October 22, the Ben Garner project in south west London lasted just 29 games as the former Gas manager was sacked earlier this month.
It will be the second time in a week that Rovers have faced a manager-less side as after the 4-1 triumph over MK Dons in the Papa Johns Trophy on Tuesday, with defender Dean Lewington at the helm, Anthony Hayes has taken caretaker charge of Charlton.
“We want to play everyone at the moment, when we’re going as well as we are,” Barton added. “We’ve got lots of improvements to do. We work tirelessly on the training ground, a lot of focus is on us and how we improve and how we get better.
"Because if we do that, it’s tough for even the big budgets in the division to stop it. We believe in our team, we believe in our culture and we think, after the 46 games, we’ll give a good account of ourselves.
“They’re (Charlton) a massive club - a former Premier League club - in a tough spot at this moment in time but nobody had a moment’s sympathy for us when we were in that spot and, unfortunately for them, I couldn’t give a monkeys about them.”
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