Joey Barton has declared that Jed Ward will definitely start at least one of Bristol Rovers five remaining fixtures but he doesn’t want to experiment too much with the rest of his team between now and the end of the season.
Promising Gas goalkeeper Ward was recalled from his loan spell at Hungerford Town prior to the Easter break and due to an injury to Ellery Balcombe has served as James Belshaw’s No2 for the last four games.
Barton admitted after the 2-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday he was tempted to put the 19-year-old on for the second half but eventually changed his mind. However, with the Gas’ League One status all-but secured for next season, he does have some room to manoeuvre.
Ultimately, this final portion of games, starting with Saturday’s trip to Port Vale will be used to assess certain individuals leading into the summer with Ward’s immediate role very much up for debate.
Having enjoyed an excellent stint in the National League South, Rovers want to give the Bradley Stoke teenager more game time to aid his development as Barton believes he’s a future No1 for the club, and another loan next season at a higher level looks likely, should a suitable club be found.
But, at the same time, over the next two weeks and into pre-season, Ward could convince his manager he’s ready to make a sustained step-up to consistently challenge James Belshaw for the top job and could also save Rovers time and money in the transfer market.
“I think I’d like to give him some experience, it’s difficult with a young keeper," Barton said, having given Ward his senior debut against Blackpool at the end of the 2020/21 season.
"We pulled him back off his loan where he was playing because Anss picked up a bit of an injury. At some point we’ve got to have a look at him, we’ve got five games here where we can have a bit of a look at a couple of players to see how far away or close players are.
“When Jed was put in against Blackpool, it felt like it was an eternity ago, he was thrown in at the deep end and I thought he did remarkably well on the day.
“Since then, he’s had time to develop and mature and gets his loan. We’ve got to see where he is in the picture of things in terms of can he challenge Belly next season or do we need to bring in somebody else to create that competition? Jed is certainly someone who has a big future ahead of him.
“For me, I do see him as a Rovers number one going down the track, how close or far away he is to it, we won’t know until we throw him in. This five game period, we will definitely see Jed Ward start a game for us now and the end of the season.”
Wael Al-Qadi detailed in his Easter open letter that the club are keen to look to upgrade their academy status to Category Two for the 2024/25 campaign, while Barton has previously spoken about the need to reinstate the Under-21 set-up as too many Gas youngsters have a glass ceiling whereby their only source of regular senior football is on loan in non-league.
Luca Hoole is an undoubted success story over recent seasons, and there is considerable excitement around Ward’s long-term prospects, while Harvey Greenslade, Jerry Lawrence and Ryan Jones are other names under consideration as regular trainers with the first-team, but Barton has ruled out meddling with his starting XI too much this season just to hand out “charity appearances”.
However, he does want to establish some form of a consistent pathway, something that’s not necessarily been as apparent at Rovers when compared with other clubs in the region, that is important not only in an internal sense - giving youngsters making their way through the age groups a tangible and aspiration goal - but also to the fanbase and the wider community, plus is beneficial from a financial standpoint.
“There are a couple of lads, Greenslade and Ryan Jones who train with us and are probably a bit closer, I just don’t think with the senior players we’ve got, there’s going to be opportunities for them,” Barton said.
“As I say, the goalkeeper situation presents (itself) slightly differently. For us, we want to win every game and be competitive, we don’t want to weaken the game or give people a game for the sake of giving them a game. It will only be because we feel, at this juncture, they deserve it and we want to see what they’ve got under the hood and what type of engine they’ve got, mentally and physically, and see if they can cope with the demands of League One football.
“You want to create pathways for Bristolians. Jed’s from the local area and been part of the academy for a long time and it sends the right message to all those aspiring players out there that if you’re a good young player and you’ve got your wits about you, you get involved in our system and if you do really well, there’ll be an opportunity to show you can play in our first team.
“If we want to create sustainability, having a healthy, vibrant production line is one of the key pillars of having a sustainable football club.
“It’s a little bit unrealistic to maybe think you’ll get every single player out of your academy but also I do think if you’re getting a player every couple of years for your first-team out of your academy they’re really good signs. It sends the right message to the community, in terms of you stand on the terraces and you can see someone on the pitch who you can recognise and relate to, I think that’s very, very important.
“If you do the right things habitually, you can create a production line. I think the south west is an area that’s up for grabs, I don’t think there’s a dominant football team in the south west. You go in the north west, you’ve got Liverpool, Man United, it’s difficult to recruit the best kids.
“But I think in the south west, it’s open season; there’s Plymouth, Bristol City, Swansea, Cardiff… but I think it’s wide open for someone to come in and steal a march on the rest by having a good production line.”
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