Joey Barton believes Bristol Rovers have proven they can "go toe-to-toe" with League One's best teams ahead of Tuesday's trip to table-topping Plymouth Argyle and he hopes to address his squad's inconsistency with a strong summer, both in the transfer market and on the training pitch.
The Gas made sure of their place in the third tier for next season with four games to spare despite Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Port Vale, leading the manager to experiment in the final fixtures as he makes decisions on players' futures with the club.
Sitting in 15th place, the Gas are destined to finish in mid-table after a satisfactory return to the division, which has seen them impress against some of the league's better sides while dropping a significant number of points against weaker teams.
Barton made clear after the loss at Vale Park that although this season has been encouraging, the standards expected from his players will increase going into next season and he believes a big summer awaits as the Gas look to tool themselves up for a run at the top six.
"We’ve got work to do," he said. "The league table doesn’t lie at this stage and they (Plymouth) are more advanced in terms of their development and size of their clubs, but we have proven this season that we can go toe-to-toe.
"The problem for us is backing that up consistently and eradicating the basic errors that we make and we’ll get an opportunity to do that in the summer in terms of what we recruit and how we recruit it, but also how we train and coach the players.
"We have had a feel of League One and I’ll level with you, it doesn’t faze me. There are some good teams and there are a lot of closely-matched teams and we need to make sure we improve at the rate we usually do in the off-season to give ourselves a chance of being next season."
At full time at Vale Park, Barton recognised Rovers need more "experience and nous" in their ranks going into next year, having relied heavily on younger players in the spine of the team for much of this season. That has brought rewards with players getting significant experience under their belts, but at times a callow side has fallen victim to the naivety, questionable decision-making and inconsistency that is par for the course with younger players.
Barton says Rovers will be active in the market, but he does not expect it be like previous windows when significant overhauls were required on the squad following both relegation in 2021 and promotion a year later.
"Who knows? We don’t need major surgery like we have done in the past, so it’s a lot more relaxed going into it," he said. "You don’t need 20-odd out and 20-odd in and there isn’t a big staff overhaul.
"It will be, as it naturally is over a window, a few tweaks here and there.
"Some lads will prove between now and the end of the season that it’s worth investing in them next season. Some lads won’t and that will give us a cycle because you get a lot of the loan players going back and the roulette wheel of building a team spins every window.
"Hopefully, I get to a stage at this club where it is one or two out and one or two in, but the reality of it is when you are trying to get better and better, there is a bit more movement than that."
After a difficult start to the season compounded by injuries, Barton says he would have taken the offer of safety with four games to play, although it is obvious which part of the team needs the most attention over the summer.
"I think we all would (take it)," he added. "We all got a bit giddy in the middle of that because we had a chance and we got into the top 10 and we were causing a lot of the good sides problems, but over the course of 46 games, the table doesn’t lie.
"We’ve conceded 66 for the season and that’s not good enough if you want to get promoted. I think you have got to get a goal difference of probably between 18-35, which means you’ve got to concede probably 25-40 goals and you’ve got to score 70-85 goals if you want to get promoted out of this division.
"We haven’t done that, so we have got work to do, but for a newly-promoted team to be safe is a step in the right direction. But we won’t rest on our laurels and think that is going to be the expectation for next season.
"We have to get better and the summer and the recruitment window gives you a chance to do that."
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