John Marquis believes Bristol Rovers will keep causing surprises in League One after his heroics on Saturday led to a memorable with for the Gas against Charlton Athletic.
A 64-year wait for a win at The Valley was brought to an end after substitute Marquis struck a brace back in his native South London, coming from behind after Ryan Inniss headed the Addicks into the lead in the first half.
Rovers have lost just once in their past 12 league games and that run – which has seen them go toe-to-toe with the likes of league leaders Plymouth Argyle and promotion hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday and Peterborough United – has propelled them to ninth place in the table, just three points outside the play-offs.
As a result, Gasheads are daring to dream of another promotion push after Joey Barton's side surged to glory in League Two in the second half of last season. Marquis, aged 30, says Rovers are not getting ahead of themselves and their absolute focus is the next game, but he says the squad is determined to make clubs in the third tier sit up and notice what is building in BS7.
"We’ve got a manager that really believes in the group and we are really ambitious," he said. "We think we can surprise a few people.
"After a slow start, we always knew we could find form and start surprising a few people and we have. We won here for the first time in 64 years and we’ve had good results at places like Sheffield Wednesday and people didn’t expect that from us this season.
"People were looking at us thinking we might stay up just about, but we’ve got our own targets we want to hit and we break the season into small chunks and we’re working our way through them. As long as we can keep hitting our targets, we’ll see where that takes us."
Marquis enjoyed a week to remember for the Gas, scoring twice in the EFL Trophy victory against MK Dons seven days ago, and he repeated the trick at The Valley on Saturday. He took just six minutes to equalise and tilt the momentum in Rovers' favour after coming on as a 55th-minute substitute, and he made it a brace soon after to secure the victory.
Marquis took his tally for the season to six goals as a result, but there was a tinge of disappointment for the former Millwall man that he did not make it a hat-trick against the Lions' local rivals. Nonetheless, he was delighted to reward the 1,339 Gasheads that made the trip to the capital.
"I’m disappointed I didn’t get three, to be honest," he said. "The ball from Josh (Coburn) was really good, it just bounced up and it was hard to get a good forward contact on it, but I’m not going to be too greedy; I am really happy with the two goals.
"The first one, I’ve picked his (Inniss) pocket and made a run towards goal and I felt like taking it early and curling it around the keeper was the best option. I got slide tackled at the time so I didn’t actually see it go in, I just heard the fans behind the goal cheering.
"The second one was a transitional goal. It was played long and Couttsy has landed on it and I’ve just gambled he’s going to put me in and it was a good touch and a good finish.
"It’s nice being in beautiful South London. There must be something in the air down here that I like.
"It was fantastic, especially with the game being in doubt, to get 1,400 people here when they didn’t even know if it was going to be on. Fair play to the mad Gasheads that they are. The week before Christmas, it costs money to travel and there are train strikes. They came and they made such a difference so it was nice to give them three points."
Both goals were products of Marquis' inherent optimism as a striker. Never is a loose ball viewed as a lost cause, and he will often apply pressure to defenders with aggressive pressing.
That trait reaped double rewards, with both goals coming from Inniss mistakes that Marquis had a hand in forcing. The first, the striker stole the ball from the centre-back as he dallied on the ball near his own area, with Marquis finishing the chance in style.
Burned by that moment, Inniss seemed panicked a few minutes later and he hurried a clearance with Marquis in the area. Paul Coutts returned the ball with interest and the number nine raced in on goal to put Rovers ahead with 18 minutes remaining.
Marquis explained the value of his experience amassed from a career playing for the likes of Portsmouth, Doncaster Rovers and Lincoln City in both of his goals.
"With experience, you get a bit better at knowing when to pick your moments (to press)," he said. "On a bobbly pitch against a player I’ve played a few times and I know he takes a few touches on the ball, I know he likes to take risks.
"I saw it as an opportunity. Eight times out of 10, I might do it and it doesn’t mean anything, but the times it does and it ends up in the back of the net, it’s all worth that running."
Of course, Marquis wants to be starting every game but so far this season – due to injuries and the form of colleagues Aaron Collins, Josh Coburn and Ryan Loft – he has often been fourth-choice, underlining the strength in depth Barton can call on in attack.
With four goals in his past two appearances, Marquis has certainly advanced his starting claims, but this is a player that understands the big picture.
Perhaps nothing summed that up more than the 30-year-old braving the cold to make a trip to the Mem last month to watch the under-18s play in the FA Youth Cup. There was no obligation for any senior players to attend, but Marquis showed his support.
So, with more than a decade of EFL wisdom under his belt, he recognises that it is a squad game and everyone will play their part.
"We’ve got options and we’re all a little bit different," he said. "We’ve got Aaron and Josh that are starting at the moment, we’ve got Lofty, Harvey Saunders and myself. We’ve got good options up there with people like Luke McCormick, Antony Evans and Scotty Sinclair that can play in the frontline.
"We have got so many options and I think that’s what’s made people play better and do better. You have got to keep your standards high every day because there is always someone else waiting to get their opportunity.
"Everyone has chipped in and in the past week it was time for me to contribute and I’ve had a couple of goals and that’s what we’re going to need from the rest of the season.
"I’m trying to do everything I can. I am staying professional, working hard in training and as long as I keep making an impact and helping this team, no matter where it’s from, I’ll be happy.
"But I’d like to hope I’ve done quite a lot in the last week to give myself a good chance of being involved, but at the same time, it’s a squad game and we’re going to need a lot of players this season with the five-sub rule.
"The impacts people make from the bench are massive and it was mine and Luca Hoole’s turn to come on and make a big impact. We’ve had it throughout the season where other players have come on and changed the game.
"You can change half of your outfield players so we’re going to need a squad to do it and that’s why we’re driving standards every day to make sure everyone keeps pushing."
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