The Easter weekend was kind to Bristol Rovers once again as Joey Barton's side almost certainly cemented their place in League One next season. Back in April 2022, Good Friday brought a narrow home win and Easter Monday was capped by a memorable away victory.
That day, the Gas came from behind to beat Port Vale, striking a huge blow in the promotion race that ultimately proved decisive en route to glory. This time around, the stakes were incomparable but it was a victory as sweet as a Cadbury's Creme Egg for Barton against former employers Fleetwood Town.
A couple of years on from being sacked by the Fylde Coast club, Barton tasted a little satisfaction on his return. In the process, his team broke through the 50-point barrier which should see them safely through to the third tier next season.
And this year's pair of Easter wins had plenty in common. Friday's 1-0 win over an in-form Charlton Athletic was underpinned by an ever-solidifying defence and impactful substitutes. The immediate result is six points and 14th spot in the table, but it also sets the Gas up for an entertaining end to the season and a hugely influential role in the race for promotion.
The 50-point barrier is broken
With seven games remaining, the Gas are one point shy of Barton's 52-point target, but with the bottom four drifting further into the distance behind them, they are set to be among League One's 24-strong cast for next season.
For Barton, it was pleasing that the milestone was reached with a win that saw Rovers leapfrog his former club in the table, and he will want to keep it that way over the run-in.
In their first season back in League One, anywhere above the dotted line would have been a solid effort, but with games left to play – albeit some tricky ones – Barton and his players have the chance to make this a very strong campaign and build ahead of next season.
Realistically, the highest the Gas can finish is 10th, currently occupied by Charlton Athletic who are four points ahead. Should the Gas claim any of those final three spots in the top half, it would represent a commendable return to League One after a year away.
Barton uses his advantage as subs deliver again
They may have cooled off a little in the past three months, but Barton has had the asset of stacked attacking depth this season and he used it fully to his advantage on Monday. The variety he has in his ranks means he has a solution for most situations and it has yielded six points this weekend.
John Marquis deserved to start after another strong cameo and a clinically converted penalty in the Charlton win, and rotating him for Josh Coburn made sense given the manful shift the Middlesbrough prospect delivered against the Addicks as a solo striker for much of the game.
Aaron Collins' place on the bench felt like it was only ever going to last one game; Barton got it right by backloading his best resources against Charlton, but even if his form is not quite at the same level as it was earlier in the season, he is Rovers' best player and there was no need to overthink it.
Rovers' first-half performance against Fleetwood was fine. There was control of possession and moments of creativity, but having been stung against the run of play, there was a need for more conviction.
That is exactly what Coburn and Ryan Loft provided when introduced upon the resumption. The pair are not only tall in stature but they are respectable athletes that physically bullied Scott Brown's defence. With the wind at their backs, Rovers were able to take dominance in the territory battle and, eventually, it told on the scoreline.
Neither man got a goal or an assist, but their roles in shaping the game were significant and for the second game in succession, Barton was delighted to have "finishers", as he calls them, at his disposal. Marquis and Antony Evans were doing OK and asking questions of the defence, but Coburn and Loft proved to be the right men for the job and Barton was rewarded for not waiting to introduce them.
The other Lewis
Gibson deserves huge praise for his performances both recently and across the season as a whole, and one wonders how many more points the Gas would have added to their tally of 51 had the Everton loanee been fit and available all season. At 22 years old, the steadying presence and leadership he shows in a youthful back four is hugely impressive, and his first career goal in a memorable win – Rovers' first at Highbury Stadium for 10 years – was a fitting reward.
But he is not the only Lewis in fine form. Playing outside the left-sided centre-half at left-back is Lewis Gordon, and his rapid rate of maturation continues.
Signed as a free agent in the summer after his release from Brentford, he was an unknown quantity but some traits in his game were immediately apparent. He was a very capable technical footballer who had a lot to learn about the game and expanding his role.
There have been highs and lows, but fast forward a few months and his came has come on significantly. Defensively, he is standing up to difficult tests, like Shaun Rooney who, when is not trying to wind everyone up, is a dynamic and dangerous full-back/wing-back. Crystal Palace's highly-rated talent Jesurun Rak-Sakyi got nothing out of him either when he lined up for Charlton on Friday.
Gordon, aged 22, has always been effective in Rovers' build-up play and stepping inside to a midfield position to play the ball forward, but he at times has looked a bit short in the final third. That has been an area of focus on the training ground, such is the importance of full-backs making attacking contributions in the modern game, and it is reaping rewards, as shown on Monday with Gordon delivering pinpoint crosses that Collins and, particularly, Evans ought to have done better with on the verge of half time. Continuing his development as an attacker while remaining solid on the back foot is the key to extending his upward trajectory.
He is developing as a man, too, and after the game, he was heaped with praise by his coaches for the way he is standing up to rivals and challenging officials' decisions. All part of the game.
Another near-shutout
Is Rovers' defence their Achilles heel anymore? Maybe not. Certainly not on the evidence of the past 180 minutes, anyway, with the Gas conceding just two shots on target in that time, one in each game.
After shipping 60 goals in the first 37, Barton is delighted his young back four has finally found its way, conceding just six goals in the past seven games, with three clean sheets.
The goal they shipped on Monday, which saw both Rooney and Stockley win headers from the second phase of a corner, will irk Rovers, given the way they otherwise blunted Fleetwood's attacking duo of Stockley and Marriott, two players with significant experience at League One and Championship levels.
Regardless, they are doing a much, much better job of protecting James Belshaw's goal, and the number one must be enjoying the new-found security after some of the chaos he encountered in front of him earlier in the season.
Barton has gone the youthful route in building his defences in both last season and this, and eventually, the penny has dropped and they have found their way. It happened with the signing of James Connolly in League Two and this year it has come from Gibson returning from injury and the players around him finding form.
Looking ahead to next season, Barton will hope he does not have to start from scratch again with a much-changed defence, but with Gibson and Liverpool prospect Jarell Quansah – who has one game left on a three-match suspension – only in on loan deals, the backline is likely to need some replenishment.
Rovers will relish the king-maker role
After a rather miserable start to the year, Barton and his team have rediscovered their swagger. They may not be the free-scoring side the way they were before Christmas, but confidence is flowing again and setbacks are not having the same damaging effect on performances.
The successive defeats to Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth before the international break last month were frustrating, but the Gas have bounced back with vigour to make it four wins out of seven and 13 points from a possible 21 since a poor home defeat to Burton Albion that left Gasheads concerned what the end of the season might have in store.
Almost two months on, their future has become clearer if not certain. Last season's climax is enough warning that nothing is impossible until mathematically confirmed, but it would take an incredible and inconceivable succession of results for Rovers to be dragged back in.
So the big-picture pressure has gone – although individuals still have plenty to strive for – and it will be interesting to see how Rovers deal with that. A quirk of the fixture list is they face five of the top seven in their final seven games of the campaign.
Rovers' results against Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday, Plymouth Argyle, Peterborough United and Bolton Wanderers over the coming weeks will play a defining role when it comes to the final complexion of the table.
Will Barton and his players – full of confidence and short of pressure – relish that challenge? Of course they will.
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