Joey Barton has warned his Bristol Rovers players will not be at the club for long if they do not keep their standards high following being dumped out of the FA Cup at the hands of non-league Boreham Wood prior to taking on Bolton Wanderers.
The Whites had a free weekend due to not being in FA Cup action and are next in action this Friday evening when they take on the Gas at the University of Bolton Stadium. Rovers meanwhile took on the National League side at the Memorial Stadium in the second round of the competition.
Goals from Will Evans and David Stephens ensured a 2-0 win for the visitors and booked their place in this evening's third round draw. Rovers are now focusing on the upcoming League One clash against Ian Evatt's side.
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Barton gave a frank assessment of his players after the defeat against a side two divisions below them in the football pyramid. He has warned his side that they must keep their standards high ahead of taking on Wanderers and moving forwards, or they will not be at Rovers for long.
"They’ve set the bar now," he told BristolLive. "The bar has been set with what we’re looking for and that’s not just from me, it’s the fanbase.
"We’ve set our standards and today we were clearly below our standard of performance. For me, certainly in the past 12 months, the standard of performance has been relatively high, but a rude awakening for us and if there is anybody in that dressing room that feels that might be accepted, you know how effective and ruthless and efficient we are.
"Their f****** feet won’t hit the ground if they think that’s the level of performance.
"The FA Cup is great and we want to have a good cup run and visit some grounds. I don’t really give a s*** about it because I’ve played in all these places.
"Are we going to win the FA Cup? Absolutely not. Could we take the fans on a journey and the team on a journey? Yeah, so I’m disappointed in that regard because it’s an exciting competition, but the bread and butter for us is establishing ourselves as a League One club, which we’re making a good fist of.
"I don’t get to watch the draw on Monday with any anticipation. I get to prepare for Bolton and the key is that we reach our level of performance and anybody who doesn’t consistently do that, whether you’ve been the best player for us last year or we’ve paid money for you this year, if you don’t get to it, you won’t hang around here.
"I don’t like losers, I don’t like spending time with losers. Of the group that lost for us in the first period when I took over, 40 of them have exited the building, staff included. You get a short time on this planet. I don’t like spending time with people who don’t care about what they do and don’t apply themselves correctly in every single moment of their life.
"On the whole, our lads are superb. Today, we were miles short, and that is everybody involved, miles short, and they know the reality of it. They know we don’t mess about and if they don’t reach the level of performance that we expect, their time here will be very short."
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