Joey Barton says Bristol Rovers exhibited ‘naivety’ in their 3-1 EFL Trophy loss to West Ham U21s at the Memorial Stadium.
The East London academy side won in the southwest thanks to a penalty from Callum Marshall and a brace from George Earthy.
The main plus for the hosts was that captain Sam Finley scored on his return to the starting lineup.
“There’s a reason we recruited the way we did this summer. If you’re not starting in these kind of competitions, it’s a terrific opportunity to show the management what you’re capable of.
“A few of the lads did that in the Cheltenham game, and there was a penalty.”
With Wigan coming to town on Saturday and Peterborough the following weekend, the Gas have some tough games coming up in their effort to avenge Tuesday’s setback.
“There was a bit of naivety on our part, and it had that last year’s smell on it.”
“We were fortunate in that we were able to rotate a little bit, and Wigan come to us on Saturday, so we want to give our best effort with our strongest team out.”
Barton made nine changes to the lineup that started last Saturday’s 2-0 triumph against Shrewsbury, Rovers’ second league victory of the season.
Both scorers, John Marquis and Aaron Collins, were benched.
“A lot of lads who started the game tonight should be very disappointed.” They’ve been disappointed in recent weeks because they haven’t been in the starting lineup, and others haven’t even made the squad.
“In response, you must go out and perform and demonstrate to me why you believe you should be in our match day 11.”
“It makes selecting the team for Saturday a lot easier than it was last Saturday.”
