Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton has admitted to Bristol Live that he might have to re-evaluate some of his summer transfer plans and potentially change his coaching style because of issues with the playing surface at the Memorial Stadium.
The Gas fell to another home defeat against Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night, with goals from former striker Brandon Hanlan, as well as Wolves loanee Chem Campbell on either side of half-time giving Matt Bloomfield’s side a 2-0 victory to secure all three points at the Memorial Stadium.
The defeat for Bristol Rovers means they have now won only two of their last ten league games and currently sit 14th in the table, with another season of League One football very much on the cards for Joey Barton’s side.
In terms of the club’s home run, Bristol Rovers have not won at the Memorial Stadium since beating Cheltenham Town 2-1 on New Year’s Day and in that time, they’ve played at home a further six times in which they’ve drawn twice and lost the other four in all competitions.
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Speaking to Bristol Live after defeat to the Chairboys, Bristol Rovers boss Joey Barton was very critical of the playing surface at the Memorial Stadium and has told owner Wael Al-Qadi and CEO Tom Gorringe that if the club don’t act to sort out the issues regarding the pitch, it could lead to him searching in a different market in terms of summer recruitment as well as potentially looking at his own playing style.
“I’ve spoken to Tom (Gorringe) and the owner about the pitch saying, ‘look if that pitch doesn’t get fixed, I’m going to have to recruit completely differently to what I want to do’,” expressed Barton. “To the point where I’m like, it almost might be better bringing in another coach in; somebody who doesn’t need grass who just wants to go back to front relatively quickly.
“To the point where I might have to change how I recruit in the summer and the style of football, we play because of the surface that we’re going to play on, there’s no point us playing 23 games, I’m building a team to control the ball. We play 23 on a surface we control that is not conducive to the way we want to play.
“Last year, in League Two, we had a better pitch than we have in League One. They tell me there are problems with the drainage, stuff’s collapsed… I don’t know but we’ve got an owner who spends a lot of money on the facilities, we’ve got lots of grounds people but yet our training pitches are better than our matchday pitches and that is not acceptable.”
It hasn’t been the first time this season that Barton has been critical of the pitch at the Memorial Stadium, after previously criticising the playing surface after the club’s goalless draw to Michael Duff’s Barnsley in their previous home game.
After the match, Barton added that the pitch was not the main reason why his side lost the game but has claimed the surface was a mitigating circumstance, with the Bristol Rovers boss claiming that Lamare Bogarde’s mistake for the first goal was more to do with a bobble as a result of the playing surface.
The 40-year-old boss also went on to use Wycombe Wanderers as a prime example of the type of players he could look to potentially bring in over the summer if nothing changes surrounding the pitch.
Barton added: “You’ll get all the people saying, ‘oh, what’s his excuse this time? It’s not the ref, it’s the pitch’ but you’re asking me a question and I’m giving you an answer: is the pitch the reason we got beat tonight? No, absolutely not. Is it a mitigating circumstance to the first goal and goals change games, yeah, you have to look at that bobble and think it is.
“You’ve watched Lamare (Bogarde) play in recent weeks, he very rarely gives it away. If you watch the ball, it hits a bobble, hits his other foot and then puts Hanlan in for the first goal.
“We need to get to the bottom of it because if we want to get promoted out of this division, my teams usually have the ball, build through. I can coach a different way, I played a different way so it’s no problem for me. But I don’t want to do it because I believe I can do it a different way.
“It’s a lot easier to strip this back and go route one but it means I’ll have to recruit completely differently in terms of personnel and we’ll be in the market for Wycombe-type players who can handle the physicality.”
Writers View
It’s no secret to see that Bristol Rovers have been struggling in the league for a little bit now with only two wins in their last ten game and are yet to win at home since beating Cheltenham Town on New Year’s Day.
I find Joey Barton’s claim that he could have to shop in a different market and potentially change his playing style because of the playing surface at the Memorial Stadium an interesting one, especially as his side is very much set for another season in League One.
With the pitch, it’s easy to use that as an excuse in football but if Barton thinks it’s one of the key reasons why his side hasn’t been picking more points recently, especially at home, then fair enough but even with that, his side still have to find different ways of winning football matches.
