Joey Barton has warned goalkeeper James Belshaw that he may never play for Bristol Rovers again unless his attitude improves after the reigning Player of the Year was left out of the matchday squad against Ipswich Town.
Belshaw lost his place to Brentford loanee Ellery Balcombe four games ago and although he was included in squads against Morecambe and Lincoln City, missed the game against MK Dons due to a rib injury which required an injection.
Part of Balcombe’s loan deal with Brentford, with Rovers securing the 23-year-old after an impressive first half of the season at Crawley Town, included a clause that he had to start the first three games of his spell in north Bristol or the Gas would be liable for a fee.
The Ipswich game therefore represented the end of that agreement with Belshaw therefore back in contention to be part of the starting XI. Except his place in the matchday 18 at the Mem was taken by Anssi Jaakkola with Barton explaining the decision to omit Belshaw was down to his performance in training on Monday.
"James was disappointed yesterday when we named the team, it then affected his training performance and his attitude wasn't at the level I would expect it to be if you're a Bristol Rovers player," Barton said, following the 0-0 draw with the Tractor Boys.
"He's been superb for us, Belly, a really good citizen and a great goalkeeper for us but nobody is bigger than our team and the football club.
"We've got a lot of good players here, more than 11 good players, sometimes people are going to be on the bench or not in the starting XI and they have to park that frustration and emotion and support the man in the jersey.
"After the game's taken place, come and chat at the manager's door for the reasons but you can't allow that to affect your training performance because you become an energy sapper and you drag the group down.
"Belly's had the evening off and if his attitude and training performance doesn't change that'll be the last anyone sees of him in the quarters jersey."
Balcombe enjoyed his best game in a Gas jersey making two key first-half saves and showed strong handling and a willingness to attack a series of Ipswich crosses as the Tractor Boys fashioned 21 shots on the Rovers goal.
It was the team's first clean sheet since December 10 - 11 games ago - and helped stem the flow of four-straight defeats.
The 23-year-old has been dropped into a challenging situation, not just experiencing a first season in League One at a team struggling for form but in replacing a fan favourite in Belshaw with fans continuing to sing his name despite his absence from the squad.
"I had it a couple of minutes in, two guys behind me singing Belly's name," Barton added. "I ride the wave of emotion with the team and you have to have big cojones to make big calls that you think are the right calls for your group.
"If I was a manager who listened to what the fans sing, I might as well let them take over the hot seat and do the job and there are going to be many times in my managerial career that people will disagree with my team selections.
"I'm one of the few professional men where everybody is an expert at my job. Sometimes I go and read the comments when the starting line-up is announced and everyone has got their bit to chip in, and that's why I love football and it's brilliant.
"My job as a custodian of the football club is to keep it moving forwards and in the right direction. Sometimes to do that you've got to upset the apple cart and move away from some people's favourites. We wanted to create competition in the goalkeeper area, we've brought a good goalkeeper in as you can see from Ellery's performance tonight, and we expect everybody to meet the challenge head on.
"Belly, he'll be better for it but we can't have sad faces and that affecting our team before we play a massive game and you support the man in the jersey; in our culture, it's team over self. If you don't accept that, there's 91 other clubs in the football pyramid you can play for.
"If we're going to be successful here, it's as a united group that sticks through the adversity."
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