Joey Barton says "it's only a matter of time" before he turns Bristol Rovers’ form around, and although he claims he’s not feeling any sense of pressure on his job accepts greater focus is falling on his position the longer this troubling run goes on.
Rovers are winless in eight in all competitions, their last three points being against Oxford United on August 13 and Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Accrington Stanley was their third loss at the Mem in just five games, leading to the final whistle being met with boos from sections of the supporters.
Barton says he understands fan frustrations but also believes patience presides in the- boardroom and the stands, due to an understanding around the injuries to key players and a team and squad that is very visibly lacking in on-field cohesion and chemistry; something that very much echoes what happened 12 months ago.
It was around this stage last season that similar disenchantment began to creep in and we recently passed the year-long anniversary of Barton verbally handing his notice in to Wael Al-Qadi after defeat to Leyton Orient, only for the president to tell his manager he was going nowhere.
That sense of familiarity with the situation and the collective struggle everyone went through last term, continues to drive his optimism that this season can follow a similar path as more players become available and adapt to the league and his system.
“For me, it’s going to turn,” Barton said. “It’s only a matter of time, but I’m not stupid. If we lose the next eight games and we’re sitting not winning a game in 15 or 16 in all competitions, then of course pressure would naturally come on the job and I’m cool with that.
“I can walk out of this club tomorrow with my head held high, knowing we’ve made a positive impact on the club in the time I’ve been here. At some point in the future, whether that’s 15 years or 15 minutes, that will happen where a manager will leave and somebody new will come in.
“But I don’t feel under pressure, weirdly, because myself and the owner and the fanbase and the players, we’ve been through this cycle before and I know I’ve got absolute support.
“I get the fans are frustrated. I actually thought they were shouting at the referee more than me, but I imagine there will be one or two voices trained on the manager because the tallest trees catch the most wind.
“I have to accept when they are carrying me on their shoulders around the pitch when we’ve won promotion that sometimes they throw sausage rolls at you when you don’t win games of footy. It’s tough being a manager and you have to accept the responsibility for the team when it’s going well and also when it’s not going well.”
Rovers’ run means each following fixture is increasingly accentuated in terms of its significance and the impact the result, for good or for bad, will potentially have on the campaign.
The Gas travel to Exeter City on Saturday - which also conjures up memories of Barton’s pronouncement last August of having no doubt in his mind they’d get promoted after a 4-1 defeat - followed by games against Cambridge United, MK Dons and Cheltenham Town.
After that block of four games, it gets considerably more challenging with Plymouth Argyle the visitors to the Mem followed by away trips at Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday to close October out. Meaning points need to be added to the board sooner rather than later, to not only lift them up the table and restore confidence, but also provide a buffer for when they take on such promotion-contenders, which as games against Portsmouth, Ipswich Town and Barnsley have shown us so far, the Gas aren’t quite at the same level yet.
Not that Barton agrees with that notion, but he accepts his team need to start showing the same fighting spirit as characterised by Accrington on Saturday.
“Yeah, and we haven’t got many reinforcements coming back to it so it’s going to get harder before it gets easier, that’s for sure,” Barton added.
“I think you can beat every team you play against at this level, with the greatest respect to the level. You’re not playing Manchester City or Real Madrid, the teams are very evenly matched even though there are some teams who have a bigger resource.
“But you see Accrington there, constantly fighting above their resources but the key for us is to stay in the division. That’s the key for Bristol Rovers this year, to establish the club from a League One club that was relegated and a League Two club that was promoted into a League One side consistently.
“When you do that, then you get the opportunity to build and to try to get from League One to the Championship, which I think is everyone’s ambition here. If it was easy, everybody would do that.
“We’re 10 games in now, we’ve got 36 games on the board and I’m confident we’ll be a League One side at the end of the division.
“If I’m the manager, fantastic. If I’m not, no problem, but I think we’ve got the players here and I think the fans are going to get with the team as they’ve stuck with us again.
“The better days for this group are out in front of us, albeit the adversity we are in at the moment feels similar to Leyton Orient. It feels similar to Swindon and Barrow when we’re scratching around trying to put a team together.”
Barton’s post-match press conference on Saturday was a mixture of self-belief peppered with unflinching honesty about his position. Each declaration of where he thinks his team will be, was then almost instinctively followed by an admission that he knows his head will ultimately be on the line, the latter of which wasn't particularly prompted by the questioning, either.
With a new four-year contract signed in the summer, the signing of 10 players sanctioned by Wael Al-Qadi plus a number of Barton-selected staff members brought in, there’s absolutely no suggestion he’s under any immediate threat of losing his job.
He also still retains a healthy of amount of credit in the bank among supporters - and the boos on Saturday could easily have been directed towards the players as much as they may have been the manager; or even the officials as he claimed - after last season’s late heroics.
But the manager isn’t shying away from the gravity of the situation which could unfold, even though it’s not a scenario he believes will unfold given his confidence in himself and his team.
“For me, the worst thing that happens, the worst-case scenario is we don’t keep winning here and I end up back with my missus and kids and on a golf course,” Barton said. “No one’s dead, it’s not the end of the world and I think the football club that I found is in a much better, much healthier place.
“At some point, whether that’s next week, eight weeks or eight years, you’ll pass on custody of the club to somebody else.
“My job is to keep driving the standards. I wish I could get out there and play. It would certainly be a lot easier if I could do that but unfortunately I’m too long in the tooth now and the old body has failed me.
“We’re trying to forge another team in the inferno of a league campaign and if anybody’s been paying attention to last season, they know the strife we went through to get there.
“I will deliver a really good League One side for Bristol Rovers, I’m confident of that. I will also get this club promoted from this division into the division above. I’m not saying I will do it this season, but I am absolutely confident.
“I have a fantastic owner and we’ve been through the adversity. It was this time last year I offered my resignation and I’ve just been laughing with Wael in there saying maybe I need to offer it to you again because it turned.
“Look, if I don’t feel I can move the group on, I’ll be the first to throw my hand in say maybe it’s better that somebody else takes the rein on, but I know what we’ve got at our disposal here and I know what we’ve got in our group and I’m absolutely confident when we get those players firing on all cylinders, which we will, we’ll have a really good League One football team.”
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