Joey Barton said ex-Bristol Rovers captain Luke Leahy was "disrespectful" to his former fans after celebrating in front of the away end during Shrewsbury Town's win at the New Meadow on Tuesday.
Leahy – a Rovers player from 2019-21 and Barton's captain in the back end of the 2020/21 relegation to League Two – opened the scoring inside three minutes with a powerful header from a corner and he wheeled away in front of the 748 travelling Gasheads, holding his stare and pointing towards them, drawing angry reactions before turning to acknowledge the home supporters.
Shrewsbury went on to win 2-1, with Rob Street doubling the lead shortly after half time before Josh Coburn's close-range finish set up a thrilling conclusion in Shropshire. But Rovers were made to pay for their porous defending and errant finishing as a bright performance went unrewarded.
Barton paid tribute to the Gasheads who made the journey and instructed his players to throw their shirts into the crowd as Rovers ticked off their final away game of the season, but the manager believes the supporters deserved better from their former captain.
The pair shared words pitchside as Barton completed his post-match media duties. Leahy walked past the Rovers manager clutching the man of the match champagne from the home sponsors and leaned in for a handshake before Barton made it abundantly clear his annoyance over what had happened.
"Tremendous (support), and that’s why I was saying to Luke there when I came to the football club, he was the captain and the standards were absolutely dog s*** right across the board and he was the captain of it," Barton said. "I don’t think he was particularly well-liked by the rest of the players, there was a bit of animosity in there.
"And then he scores against us and he’s celebrating against our fans and I think it’s incredibly disrespectful. But that’s him.
"I don’t know what our fans have done other than vote him player of the year. He deserted a sinking ship that he was captain of. I get he’s got his club, but does he need to go and celebrate in front of our fans? I thought it was a strange decision from him.
"I’ve always got on with Luke, but I think it’s disrespectful to the Gasheads. He’s got his fingerprints all over a relegation as the skipper and he scores a goal here tonight and wants to noise them up. He should have more respect for our fans.
"They were incredible. Nothing to play for and 700 of them come up. That’s why I told the lads to get their shirts in and make sure they appreciate them.
"We know when we come back here next season and we have something to play for, we know we’ll have a big away contingent and fanbase following us."
Leahy made 85 appearances for Rovers across his two years for the club, scoring 10 goals. The majority of those came in his second season when he was named captain soon after Barton's arrival in February 2021 with Max Ehmer being stripped of the armband.
Rovers offered the left-back a deal to stay with the club after their relegation was confirmed, but he opted to stay in League One with Shrewsbury and he has been reinvented as a defensive midfielder in Steve Cotterill's side. He has captained Salop in every game this season, scoring nine goals.
It was a galling evening all-round for Barton as Rovers offered plenty and created the better chances, but it was another example of unconvincing defending costing them in what he described as an "encapsulation" of a season that is drifting to an end after the Gas made sure of their place in the division for next season.
"The pain of today and the frustration of this season kind of petering out only strengthens your mind about building a team that’s capable of getting out of this division," Barton added.
"For us, we get this Bolton game out of the way for us now, hopefully with a good performance and result in front of our fans with another sell-out which is superb, and then on Monday morning, the hard work starts to build an exciting team for next season.
"The real positives were how the lads played. They kept pushing and they certainly had Shrewsbury pinned in their half for a lot of that game.
"The problem for us at the moment is keeping that back door locked and they were two really poor goals at the start of each half to give away and you give yourselves a mountain to climb if you are that porous in defence."
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