Beneath the disappointment of the defeat, Joey Barton was buoyed after Bristol Rovers were beaten at Wycombe Wanderers on Boxing Day, insisting he would not trade any of his players with Chairboys boss Gareth Ainsworth.
The Gas raced into a fourth-minute lead at Adams Park with Josh Coburn converting from a brilliant Aaron Collins cross, but the Gas failed to capitalise on their early dominance and conceded a soft equaliser to David Wheeler midway through the first half.
Heading into the second period, Barton would have been confident from the evidence he had seen that Rovers could make it a third straight win in League One. However, they could not replicate the levels of their first-half performance and Lewis Wing squeezed a shot through a crowd of bodies and inside the near post three minutes after the interval to give sixth-placed Wycombe the lead.
From there, the hosts were in their element, showing all their nous to sit on the lead and bleed the clock, and Rovers became increasingly frustrated, with patience and quality in increasingly short supply until referee Sunny Gill – who pleased neither fanbase with his inconsistency – called time.
Rovers were beaten for just the second time in 13 league games, dropping to 10th in League One in the process ahead of home games against Exeter City and Cheltenham Town to complete the festive period.
Barton made clear his respect for Ainsworth and the job he has done across a spell at Adams Park spanning more than a decade, but he believes Rovers' commitment to a different style of play will reward them in the long run.
"I think today it was a bit of naivety," Barton said when reflecting on the result. "It’s what happens when you have 20 and 21-year-olds at the back.
"They’ve got to the Championship and bought a bit of experience in big Sam Vokes up there and Ryan Tafazolli at the back, (Jordan) Obita, (Gareth) McCleary, those type of boys who’ve got a good solid CV of work in their careers.
"But I wouldn’t swap anyone in their team for anyone in our team and I wouldn’t swap our style of football for their style of football. I’m telling you, I ain’t standing and watching that on the sideline.
"Credit to Gaz. His neck muscles must be really strong, but I am not watching good footballers standing there and booting the ball as far as they can. For me, that’s not how the game is played, but I’m sitting here with no points.
"I’ve told you all across my tenure here, when you are developing a team and developing a group, I always try to teach my players and my teams to be multi-faceted across systems and it takes a bit longer to bed it in.
"I believe in teaching people rather than using people to get results and moving on, which some managers do and I can get theat. I believe in teaching people the game properly and taking a medium-to-long-term approach.
"Don’t forget, this is a consolidation year, we were 20th in League Two this time last year and now we’re disappointed we haven’t beaten Wycombe and gone above them and into the play-offs, but I said to the lads in the dressing room ‘Do they put any fear into you?’ Absolutely not.
"We’ve got to defend properly and deal with the physicality, but square go, we’ve got them back at our place in four weeks and it will be another good game and another good pitch."
Despite his assertions, Barton knows his team did not play to their standards in key moments, conceding a pair of soft goals and succumbing to Wycombe's direct threat in the build-up to both.
"We’re disappointed," he added. "I was sitting in there at half time and I said ‘Settle down, we’ve got to get the ball down and play a bit more’. I thought we had good matchups with a number of their players on yellow cards.
"We spoke about starting the second half correctly and within two or three minutes, for some reason, we’ve got players in positions they shouldn’t have been.
"It (the second goal) comes from Bobby Thomas stepping out with the ball with no plan. He gives it away and he’s advanced with Antony Evans behind him so it gets launched into the channel. Antony doesn’t deal with the header and Bobby doesn’t deal with the second phase.
"After that, the lads are scrambling around trying to keep it out of the net and they’ve had a bit of luck. You need a little bit of luck and Wing somehow has found an angle. I didn’t see. I didn’t even see it go in. I thought it hit defenders on the line but he’s managed to squeeze it in via the post and it’s probably the only spot where it would have beaten our defenders or goalkeeper.
"You need a little bit of luck here and today we’ve huffed and puffed. Anyone turning up to watch the game today, if you’re a Wycombe fan, you’ve probably got a neck brace on, although they are probably well versed in the neck muscles because it is hump-it football.
"If you’re our fans, you’re disappointed because the side that is more pleasing on the eye has lost the game."
Not used: Anssi Jaakkola, James Gibbons, Lewis Gordon, Harvey Saunders.
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