Joey Barton spoke with enormous pride after Bristol Rovers conjured a remarkable comeback to beat Rochdale 4-3 at Spotland on Saturday.
Aaron Collins' second-half hat-trick snared the three points and clinched Rovers' place in the League Two play-offs and they are level on points with Northampton for the final automatic promotion place with one game to play.
The Gas endured a nightmare start, falling two goals behind inside 17 minutes with Luke Charman netting a brace. Rovers had several players off their games, but Sam Finley's smart finish soon after half time boosted hopes of a comeback.
However, the menacing Corey O'Keefe restored Dale's two-goal advantage after beating James Belshaw at the second attempt. With results elsewhere not going their way with half an hour to play, Rovers were on course to lose their place in the top seven, which would have ceded control over their destiny in their promotion race.
But Collins hit back in the 66th minute and went on to equalise in the final minute of normal time. A point would have kept Rovers in the top seven ahead of next Saturday's game against Scunthorpe, but Barton's players continued to pile forward in hope of keeping their dreams of a top-three place alive.
And scenes of pandemonium ensued when Collins was in the right place at the right time to snatch the points in the fifth minute of stoppage time. The drama was not over, though, with Paul Coutts shown a straight red card in the dying moments, but Rovers held on for the most memorable of victories.
"We kept going, it wasn’t our best day and we can certainly do things a lot better," Barton said. "We just stayed in it.
"I spoke to them at half time about the following and it’s days like today that from my first coaching journey, I couldn’t turn around and say ‘You’ve got to do it for these fans’. They’ve travelled in enormous numbers again.
"At half time, that was what we were talking about, making the fans proud and giving a great account of ourselves. We felt our fanbase would recognise that, but to win 4-3 in the manner we’ve done sends those Gasheads home saying ‘I was there’ again.
"So proud of the players, Amazing character. I’m so proud of our football club. To travel in those numbers is special."
Barton took the blame for Rovers' torrid start, admitting he had recalled Josh Grant to the starting XI too soon after injury, but his all-out attack substitutions were vindicated in the death.
He said a "normal" team would have succumbed to defeat, but it was Rovers' never-say-die attitude that rescued them.
"We were just sloppy in moments," he added. "We had a really good chance for James Connolly and probably should have took the lead when the keeper drops it. They pretty much go up the other end and score.
"That’s probably on me, to be honest. I rushed Josh Grant back into the game. He’s only trained for a couple of days but I thought we were better for having Josh in there.
"I’ve thrown him in a little bit too soon, so that’s on me. The first couple of goals, I’ve got to blame my team selection for that.
"But at half time I said ‘We have to get the next goal, who knows what can happen with our fans’. We got the next goal and then we managed to give them another goal.
"Most normal teams possibly give up at that moment, and again it just flips over to our lads’ character. They never gave up.
"We ended up with Paul Coutts at centre-half. It was strange, but we just went for it. We wanted to win the game and we got rewarded for that."
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