Joey Barton believes Bristol Rovers' 2-1 win over Cambridge United at the Mem on Saturday will give his players the confidence to start climbing the table. The Gas leapt out of the bottom four and ended a 56-day wait for a League One win.
A Greg Taylor own goal put Rovers ahead on 17 minutes after a slick start and they looked good value to add to their lead, but they were pegged back 10 minutes before half time when James Belshaw felled Sam Smith to concede a penalty. Joe Ironside made no mistake with a clinical finish from 12 yards to put the game back in the balance.
Rovers had taken five points from their first six home games, but they were back in front 11 minutes after the interval when Middlesbrough loanee Josh Coburn scored on his league debut, tucking away a brilliant Aaron Collins cross. Barton's blues secured the points with a dogged showing in the final half hour to climb to 19th in the table ahead of Tuesday's trip to MK Dons.
"Confidence is everything and we’re fully aware of the scraps we’ve had here, drawing games we felt we should have won, and there is no greater drug in football than winning games and getting that shot of confidence, especially when you’re in a young group and in a new league, and especially when you’ve got a passionate fanbase behind you," Barton said.
"I think that will do us the world of good, but I think that was built of Exeter last week. We had great away support and the lads dug in and got themselves back in the game late doors with the equaliser. That allowed us to take momentum into Tuesday night and win comfortably and it allowed us to bring even more momentum into the stadium today.
"I think confidence is that secret recipe that every single person in football cannot have enough of and that will go no end today to improving our lads’ confidence and helping us start kicking on now and driving up the table."
Amid a significant injury crisis that has started to wane, Rovers had made an unfortunate habit of not capitalising on good positions at home, but they got the job done this time. Barton was asked what impressed him most about the performance.
"The way we dug in," he replied. "We were certainly the better team for the first 25-30 minutes, got our goal and you just want that second goal to settle everybody down, I think it would have settled the stadium down and the players.
"But we never managed to get that and it was always going to be hard-fought. Mark (Bonner) has got a really competent side there. They keep competing, they’ve come out of League Two and solidified in League One with 16 points on the board already and they’re well versed in what they do and they compete.
"We knew it was going to be a tough afternoon and whichever way we managed to find the three points, if that was with a bit of panache and a bit of style, but in reality, we haven’t won in the league for eight games, 50 days. Well, ‘We haven’t won for 25 minutes’ will be the Bristol Post headline most probably.
"We had to find a way of winning the game because winning breeds confidence. We’ve got a young group and I’ve said to you all the while when players start to return, it will give us a real solid platform and you could see with the bench today, the changes we were able to make to shut the game down and make sure we got out of here with a well-earned three points."
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