Bristol Rovers may be considered outsiders as the League One play-off race begins to take shape but in Joey Barton’s eyes the Gas have a number of fundamental advantages over their more illustrious and better-resourced rivals.
Rovers lie ninth, three points outside the top six, with a visit to seventh-placed Wycombe Wanderers on Boxing Day presenting a tough challenge but another opportunity to lay down a marker as to where the Gas stand in the divisional hierarchy.
Just one defeat in the league since October 1 has catapulted them up the standings and, yet again, reinforced Barton’s pre-season belief - which, admittedly, was briefly corrected after a difficult start - that Rovers can be in promotion consideration this term.
There are still 24 games remaining, a transfer window to navigate, and all the complex obstacles and uncertainties a long league season throws up, while Barton himself admits, in his mind, a campaign doesn’t really get going until after Christmas.
But as Rovers fly under the radar in a national sense, with focus on the heavyweights of the league, Barton is more than comfortable with his squad’s status - due to the pressure and expectation on those above them and their own experiences in League Two.
The Gas were one of the big fish in the division last term and the manager admits they initially buckled under the early season forecast that they should be not just competing for, but actually getting promotion.
It was a burden they gradually lifted as results picked up, and although the top three in League One of Plymouth Argyle, Ipswich Town and Sheffield Wednesday have opened up daylight on the rest, the chasing pack and those competing for play-offs - which the Gas believe they can be part of - contains Barnsley, Bolton Wanderers, Derby County, Wycombe and Peterborough United, while Portsmouth are just a place below them.
All those teams would have had designs on the top six when they were conducting their summer transfer business and pre-season preparations, and consequently anxiety is creeping in as they drift further away from that top three, while Rovers are threatening to gate-crash the party. As was the case 12 months ago.
Having wrestled with the pressure of expectation, Barton's group came out the end of it - another reason why he speaks with continued confidence about their chances in comparison to their rivals. To some extent, albeit in a league below, they’ve achieved precisely what the others want to in similar circumstances.
“We know the pressure from last year, the expectation of promotion, it held us back,” Barton said. “It was certainly until that confidence and winning run together, it was difficult because you’re expected to win and every draw is seen as two points dropped.
“So, for us this year, we don’t have the same external pressure. Wycombe will have that. If they draw against us they will see that as two points dropped, where we’ll see it as a good point.
"There are teams like Wycombe with big expectations, big budgets - Bolton, Portsmouth etc - and as the pressure cranks up towards the business end of the season I think it leaves us sitting in a lovely spot.
“We’ve got internal pressure, because we want to win every game, but also the external pressure for us, this season is slightly different to last. You get the chance to be an underdog, a dark horse, whatever it is, coming with a late run… although it’s not that late because we’ve started it in November.
“I think we’re unique in terms of if you look at all the sides in the top 10, we are the real dark horse who doesn’t have that pressure on us but we’re dangerous because we’ve come through that pressure, we’ve got used to winning under the intensity of no-mistake football, which was our run to promotion into this division.
“The lads have got the bit between their teeth again as the last 18 games attest to in all competitions. But, again, we’ve got to keep scrapping, we’ve got to keep fighting and Wycombe looks a real tough game due to the nature of their results in recent games and we feel it’s an opportunity for us to grab momentum.
“Nobody will be expecting us to be in the hunt for automatic promotion, nobody thought, after the start we had, we’d be in the hunt at Christmas for the play-off places but it attests to working hard every day, taking each game as it comes.
"If you pick up and you get the right results we can be in the mix for it so, we’re happy to be out of the conversation at the minute but we’ve always been in the conversation, even when we had only won two of the first 10; we’ve always believed we could put a run together and mount this so the lads’ confidence levels are high and they know they’re in a really good team and have got a good squad of players.”
Monday’s game represents a reference point for the manager because Wycombe are the one remaining opponent for the Gas to face. With the exception of the Chairboys, they’ve been afforded a first-hand look at all their competitors up and down the division and while those opening 6-8 weeks were a time for the squad to acclimatise while it was still being reinforced, the next two months have allowed the team to not just establish themselves but make a statement.
Barton has previously spoken of the strength of Ipswich, who possess the biggest budget in the division and beat Rovers 2-0 at Portman Road in September, but even in that game an under-strength Gas were in the contest up until the second half.
They have drawn with Plymouth, Sheffield Wednesday and Bolton, beaten Peterborough and while early season defeats at Barnsley and Portsmouth were chastening experiences, Rovers are in a better place now and have those teams still to visit the Mem.
The only blot on their copybook outside of the Tractor Boys seems to be their trip to Pride Park in October where they were beaten 4-2 by Derby County although that was a loss all of their own making with a number of enforced errors in defence.
“There are some really big sides, you only have to look at the top 10 - we’re an outlier, really,” Barton added. “There are some big clubs in there with big ambition but, at this level, the teams are so closely matched, it’s untrue.
"The difference sometimes can be a refereeing decision, a moment of quality from a player, and we know we've been in every game. Even Ipswich, who are a big spending juggernaut, we had a makeshift backline and I remember Hooley (Luca Hoole) he has a great chance just after half-time, Trevor Clarke forced Christian Walton into a big save. And while we didn’t fire on all cylinders, we were in the game for 50, 60 minutes.
“If you play a team like Man City and were half-cocked like that, the game would be done after 15 minutes, that’s the ruthlessness of those higher leagues. As good as these teams are, they just don’t have that ruthless streak at the elite level. And as long as you can stay in the game and stick with it, you can beat anybody on the day.
“Ipswich - fantastic side; Plymouth have had a great opening gambit to the season; Sheffield Wednesday in the same conversation; Bolton and the rest. But we’ve had our hands on them and there’s no fear attached, we feel we can beat anyone and lots of them have to come to the Mem in the second half of the season, because we’ve already been to their gaffs and our team is getting better and we’re evolving. We can’t wait to get into the second half of the season.
“Certainly as our team grows into the season, and we’ve got a lot of young hungry lions here who know nothing about winning games of football and long may that continue.”
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