Joey Barton said Bristol Rovers "have work to do" in the transfer market after his team were beaten 2-1 by Forest Green Rovers at the Mem on the opening day of the League One season.
Regan Hendry's stunning finish two minutes from time earned the points for the Nailsworth side. The Gas huffed and puffed, but struggled to break down a well-organised Forest Green defence.
Still, Barton's side had the impetus when Aaron Collins – fresh from signing a new three-year contract – cancelled out Jordan Moore-Taylor's header with 19 minutes to play. But Hendry snatched the points for Ian Burchnall's side with a fine finish from 20 yards, just out of the reach of James Belshaw.
Barton reflected on an afternoon where he did not learn a great deal about his team. He was sure his squad was short of depth and quality ahead of the game and that view was only emboldened by Saturday's defeat.
"We find ourselves a goal behind and didn’t really play well after the 30-minute mark," Barton said. "We controlled where the game was taking place without creating a lot of goalscoring opportunities.
"We’re figuring our way out again with this new group and this new team, so it’s going to take a bit of time. In a month’s time when the window is closed, we’ll have everything we need and with the greatest respect to the starting XI today, if you had said to me at the end of last season Zain Westbrooke and Trevor Clarke were going to be in our starting XI on the opening day of the season, I would have said ‘My god, we must have had a bad summer’.
"The reality of it is we’ve got work to do. We’ve got six or seven to do and we’re fully aware of who they are. We’ve got lots of moving targets and the players are aware of that, they know we’re short.
"They’re not stupid, they can sense it, the same way the fans can. I’m fully aware of the work we’ve got to do and it isn’t easy to replace Connor Taylor or Elliot Anderson and with the resources and budget we’ve got, we have to be really smart in the marketplace."
Barton believes his patience in the market – it has been 26 days since Rovers made a signing – will be rewarded in the coming weeks, assuring fans he will get the depth and quality in the squad he wants by the deadline.
"By the end of the window closing, we’ll have every piece of the jigsaw that we need to be successful, but at this moment in time you’ve got to play cat and mouse to get value out of the market and unfortunately that leaves us short," Barton added.
"As I’ve said, it creates opportunities for people and I don’t think when you lose games of football any of them can come in and say ‘I’ve furthered my cause’.
"There were some good performances in there, Luca Hoole was superb at right centre-half, considering what a difficult opponent Jamille Matt can be. I was really pleased with loads of elements of some of the lads, James Gibbons coming in there and Jordan Rossiter who are new to the group.
"John Marquis was a really bright spark in the first half and he gave us something different and Aaron’s got that monkey off his back with a goal. Last year, it took a long while into the season to get it."
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