Bristol City star makes Alex Scott claim as Joey Barton’s confession revealed

Bristol City and Bristol Rovers are having very similar seasons in their respective divisions so far this season.

The Robins were hoping to kick on under Nigel Pearson this season, but they haven’t managed to do so, currently sitting in 15th position, albeit with games in hand to play. Meanwhile, Rovers will have had lesser expectations, given this is their first season back in League One, and they currently sit 14th, comfortably above the drop but also a fair way off the play-offs.

Here we take a look at the latest news surrounding City, Rovers and their rivals.

Naismith’s Scott claim

City star Kal Naismith has been speaking up teammate Alex Scott, who is likely to attract plenty of interest this summer.

Speaking on the Open Goal podcast in Scotland, he said: “Have a look for this boy, he’s deadly. A few clubs bid for him - he’s played every game for us - he won the Euros (U19s) with England in the summer. Centre mid, little old school, box-to-box. Like a Gerrard kind of (player) - obviously I don’t want to make that comparison, he’s got a long way to go. He’s tall enough, he’s maybe six foot, he can run all day, he’s hard in the tackle, really good on the ball.

“He’s different class, he’s reminding me of when Grealish was in the Champ, he’s obviously more of a centre mid but see that way he takes the ball, lets people get tight to him and then runs away as if they weren’t even there. His past five to six games, he’s been tremendous. I can honestly see him going to a top four/five team in the Prem.”

Barton’s apology

Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna has said Joey Barton apologised to him after Tuesday night’s draw.

“Their manager, credit to him for his honesty as he usually sets his team up in an aggressive manner, apologised to me straight after the game and said he didn’t want to take us on in an open game of football,” McKenna said.

“That’s probably the most open and aggressive team in the league at home, who have defended with 11 men against us in their half of the pitch. That’s our challenge, that’s how teams are viewing us and we’ve got to keep finding solutions. We tried, we mixed our game up and we weren’t able to find our finishing touch. We need to keep working on it. We’ve got another game on Saturday and need to work to find the solutions to overcome those challenges.”