Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton admits he’d rather not be playing in the Papa John’s Trophy tonight as he places the majority of his focus on the league campaign, managing his resources and fitness levels for the next 40 matches of the domestic campaign.
Rovers travel to Plymouth Argyle in their first group game of the EFL Trophy, which continues to be met by apathy, bordering on anger, among fanbases across the country following the introduction of Premier League youth sides into the competition in 2016/17.
The tie arrives just three days after Rovers’ League One contest against Shrewsbury Town, with Saturday’s visit of Morecambe on the horizon. Barton has a number of first-team players he’d rather give the night off to allow them to recuperate in time for the weekend plus Rovers’ lack of a Under-21 set-up means he doesn’t have an abundance of options below the first-team to select from.
“I’ll level with you, I wish we weren’t playing in it,” Barton said. “Last year we used it as a chance to have a look at things while we were evolving our team, this year if they phoned up and said it’d be cancelled I wouldn’t be disappointed.
“But again, it is an opportunity for some of our younger players and some players who need minutes or are striving for match fitness. We’ll get the lads in, we’ll see where we are and we’ll pick a team.
“But if I’m a Gashead, and I’ve got energy prices and bills coming, I have to be honest with them - we won’t be prioritising the Pizza Cup.”
Young forward Harvey Greenslade and midfielders Ryan Jones, Jerry Lawrence and Malik Sesay are all likely to be on Barton’s teamsheet in what could become a glorified Under-21 encounter, with Plymouth also likely to make a number of changes to their best XI.
One senior Gas player who could get a run-out is Luke McCormick, with the midfielder having signed from AFC Wimbledon last week after nearly four weeks of being exiled from training while his transfer away from the League Two club was being negotiated.
The 23-year-old has his own individual programme to boost his match fitness and the game at Home Park represents a chance for some minutes without the pressure of a league encounter. Then again, Barton is conscious of rushing him into action in a game situation that, relative to the rest of the season, is towards the bottom of his list of priorities.
“Possibly, he’s asking for them but I don’t know,” Barton added, when asked whether McCormick could be involved tonight. “He’s done a couple of heavy sessions the last few days.
“He was on the naughty step from the first day of the season starting, which you can imagine - if you’re not going to be part of the plans, the manager didn’t want him around, Johnnie Jackson is a good guy but obviously that disrupts Luke’s rhythm.
“He done the pre-season, played some games and then stopped for a 3-4 week period. So we’ve got to make sure he’s chomping at the bit, obviously, to play in front of the Mem and get at it.
“But we’ve got a 46-game season, I’ve got Gibbo (James Gibbons) and Beefy (James Connolly) out at the minute, the last thing we need is making the injury list any bigger.
“It’s tricky. Portsmouth, I made two subs because I’ve got to manage the load of Jordy Rossiter and Gibbo (Lewis Gibson), which allows them to get in the 90-minute zone. But if we don’t build this robustness into the group, then when the games start coming thick and fast and the winter months draw in, we’ll pay the price for that.
“It’s a medium to long-term strategy but that’s got to be our course this year, the job is to stay in the division. Anything else is a bonus for us. League Cup, FA Cup, we’ll have a go, FA Cup more so. But, I’ll level with you, League Cup and Papa John’s pizza, I don’t care.”
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