Joey Barton believes Bristol Rovers should have been more clinical and made easier work of beating Colchester United in the second round of EFL Trophy on Wednesday, but he is happy to be a step closer to a Wembley final.
The Gas beat League Two strugglers Colchester 2-1 at the JobServe Community Stadium, but they made hard work of their victory. James Connolly put Rovers ahead early in the second half and the hosts posed little threat, but the Gas were profligate going forward, meaning Colchester were still in the tie and they were level seven minutes from time when Freddie Sears scored a deflected equaliser.
The prospect of penalties loomed large, but substitute Harvey Saunders saved the Gas the stress with a winner in the fifth minute of stoppage time, prodding home from close range.
The victory puts the Gas into the last 16 of the competition, three wins from a possible Wembley final. Rovers manager Barton was pleased with the result, but he saw plenty of room for improvement in the performance.
"It should have been safer," Barton said. "We had the game in control. We were guilty of spurning a number of really good opportunities on the counter-attack to get that second goal and put the tie beyond them.
"Credit to Colchester they were brave and played a lot more aggressively in terms of putting bodies forward when they were one behind. They got their rewards, a bit of a defensive mix-up. We exposed ourselves and we were a little unlucky with the deflection and James (Belshaw) has got no chance.
"Credit to the lads for picking themselves up and going on and winning the tie and not requiring penalties."
Rovers were forced to change their goalkeeper 23 minutes from time with Anssi Jaakkola going off injured and first-choice James Belshaw, who had been given the night off, needed to replace him.
With Jed Ward working his way back from a broken hand, another injury in the goalkeeping department would be problematic for the Gas, but Barton shared a positive update on the Finn's fitness.
"He’s alright, he got kneed first-half in the leg," Barton said. "He’s got a bit of a dead leg which stiffened up and it affected his kicking.
"They are quite painful when you get them. Sometimes the longer and longer the blood starts flowing in there, the stiffer it gets. If you can’t take a goal kick it’s silly of us to leave him out there.
"Belly goes on and pretty much the first thing he does is pick the ball out of the back of the net. I’m glad we’ve managed to find a winner because I felt on the balance of play it was a game we should have won."
SIGN UP: To receive our free Rovers newsletter, bringing you the latest from the Mem
READ NEXT:
