Joey Barton has responded to Stevenage manager Steve Evans’ claims that Northampton Town deserved to go up last season, in place of Bristol Rovers, with the blunt message: “tough s*** on that one”.
In the build-up to Stevenage’s 3-2 League Two defeat against Northampton on Saturday, in which he was sent off after arguing with officials, Evans - a pantomime villain to Rovers fans down the years - revisited a debate from the conclusion to the 2021/22 campaign where he stated that Scunthorpe United’s line-up on the final day had, “no place in football”.
Rovers beat a Scunthorpe side, with an average age of 20, 7-0 to earn promotion via goals scored, with the Cobblers missing out and then knocked out of the play-offs. And while no EFL rules were contravened, Northampton were furious in the aftermath at a perceived injustice that the integrity of the league had been compromised.
Five months on, Rovers are now preparing for tomorrow’s trip to Hillsborough to take on Sheffield Wednesday followed by their first game at Derby County’s Pride Park since an FA Cup tie in 2007, a timely reminder of the difference between the two divisions in terms of gravitas.
“It’s a helluva lot different looking at the fixture list and seeing a trip to Pride Park and a trip Hillsborough, rather than Crawley and Stevenage and big Steve Evans charging up and down the touchline,” Barton said, albeit claiming he hadn’t read exactly what Evans had said.
“He’s commented this week, hasn’t he? It must’ve been in between screaming at officials. He’s commented that we were lucky or something like that.
“I haven’t read it, I’ve just heard about it. I don’t know why, it’s bizarre. He won’t want to help Jon (Brady, Northampton boss). Jon doesn’t like me anyway and I don’t think he will send me a Christmas card.
“Steve is entitled to his opinion. There’s nothing wrong with what he said. We’re up now, so tough s*** on that one.”
Barton believes the games in Sheffield and Derby also serve as a reward for the Gasheads for sticking by the team throughout the challenging times of his 18 months in charge.
Rovers recovered from a dismal start last season to power into the final automatic promotion place and this term the Gas experienced a challenging run from mid-August through to the end of October whereby they were winless in eight games, losing five and slipped into the bottom four of League One.
However, with Rovers unbeaten in seven, in all competitions, including Saturday’s thrilling 2-2 draw against leaders and South West rivals Plymouth Argyle, they travel to the Steel City with confidence, both within the playing squad and in the stands.
That continual loyalty from the terraces was evidenced in microcosm on the weekend whereby despite being 2-0 down at half-time, the Mem stuck with the team and, in tandem with the players on the pitch, helped create a special 45 minutes of football after the break.
“For us, we’re looking at some glamour ties, Sky on a Wednesday night. I will have to get my teeth whitened and blond highlights,” Barton joked. “I’m looking forward to taking our team to some good stadiums and our fans to some good stadiums because how good were they on Saturday? It felt like there was 20,000 in.
“Yozzer (Mark Hughes, Plymouth assistant) and Steve (Schumacher, Plymouth head coach) have come in there and they were like, ‘We were really worried because of the atmosphere and our players were rattled by it’.
“There were not as many as we could get in if we had more seats, but certainly the atmosphere was brilliant and I can’t thank them enough.”
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