Joey Barton hopes Scott Sinclair's winning goal for Bristol Rovers against Rochdale at the Mem on Saturday is "the first of many".
Sinclair, making his first start since returning to his boyhood club, finished neatly after the interval to secure a 1-0 win and book Rovers' place in the second round of the FA Cup, almost 18 years on from his debut as a 15-year-old.
The Bath-born 33-year-old signed a contract with the Gas until January last month, but Barton hopes the winger makes it a longer stay in BS7.
"His first start for Rovers and his first goal," Barton said. "It rounds the circle of his journey really nicely for him. I’m hoping that’s the first of many.
"I thought he was our best player on the day. It was nice for him to score and get the winner, and for it to be at Thatchers End, it was a nice moment for him and his family. I thought he was excellent today."
Rovers as a collective were far from at their best and League Two Rochdale had their moments, but the Gas proved too strong in the end thanks to a period of pressure in the second half and the margin of victory should have been wider with Sinclair and Trevor Clarke missing good chances to double the lead.
But Barton was happy to get the job done on the day and advance outright into the second round, avoiding a midweek replay at Spotland.
"In cup football, the name of the game is to get through. Ideally, you want to stay in the hat, but with replays available, the last thing you want is to get a replay in this competition," Barton said.
"If you can progress and you’re in your own stadium, as frustrated as we can be sometimes with levels of performance, the aim of the game in the cup is to progress and we’ve done that today.
"We don’t face that so much in League One, a team that is sitting in and they respect the difference between the two teams and the divisional hierarchy.
"They have come with a game plan to make it tricky for us and to get us to over-commit and take chances and their plan was to counter back through that.
"We actually started alright and this is the problem with teaching lads at this level. Premier League lads are well versed in that and they will keep the ball, have 600 or 700 passes and they will just tire the opposition out.
"Our lads are on a journey. We worked a lot this week on phase after phase of possession knowing what the likely mindset of the opposition would be. I just think people got a bit frustrated.
"But for me, there were lots of good parts with James Connolly getting minutes, Scott Sinclair getting minutes. We’ve progressed in the cup and it’s a welcome distraction from the league, but we can certainly play a lot better than that."
As for who he wants in the second round, Barton joked that he would like a reunion with Rovers' former director of football, Tommy Widdrington, whose King's Lynn Town, of the National League North, knocked out League Two Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.
"I’m hoping for King’s Lynn at home, or away, that’ll do. They’ve won today and I’ll have a go at them, hey?" Barton laughed.
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