The ups and downs of a gruelling 46-game season are encapsulated by John Marquis' status in Joey Barton's Bristol Rovers squad. If we are counting top scorer Aaron Collins as a support striker/winger, Marquis has often found himself at the bottom of a three-man pecking order.
Both Ryan Loft and Josh Coburn have taken turns as Rovers' number nine this season and they have both enjoyed success, but two-thirds of the way through the campaign, Marquis – for now, after 20 straight games out of the starting XI – has made the position his own.
The 30-year-old – League One's top scorer in his Doncaster Rovers days – has started the past two games as the focal point of a front three with Collins and Scott Sinclair flanking him, and by and large, it has worked well.
