‘Do better’ - Joey Barton refuses to blame ref decision in Bristol Rovers loss to Burton

Joey Barton believes that Jarell Quansah was fouled in the build-up to Burton Albion’s winning goal against Bristol Rovers.

The Gas fell to their latest defeat despite John Marquis putting them in front as Charlie Kirk equalised and then Sam Winnall edged the Brewers ahead. Winnall’s effort came 10 minutes into the second half and they were good value for their victory after a flat second period from the hosts.

In the build-up to Kirk’s goal, goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray punts a ball up to the pitch and Quansah loses out, and it allowed Dale Taylor to play in the on-loan Charlton midfielder who scored with a composed finish with his trusted right foot.

He said: "Without criticising the officials, I’m trying my best not to do it, I do feel it was a foul on Jarell. It isn’t given and we still have opportunities to deal with it, and we must do better.

"We’ll speak about that internally because I don’t really want to drag the lads’ confidence down further by naming them in the media. You’ve got to expect things to go wrong as a defender, you have got to be pessimistic."

"It’s great Jarell’s winning loads of balls and he is possibly fouled but again, we’ve got to be ready to catch any mistake or any opportunity for the opponent and we didn’t do that. We get punished, we go in at half-time 1-1 and we’re really disappointed, it takes that energy out of the stadium."

Winnall’s winning goal also came with controversy with Barton showing his displeasure to the officials in the aftermath of the goal. The goalscorer had to be substituted off with an injury sustained in the build-up but there was a claim of both offside and a foul for the goal.

In the build-up to Burton’s second, there was a catalogue of errors. Grant Ward failed to clear Zac Ashworth’s cross into the box and it ended up with Kirk floating a ball in that deflected off of Lamar Bogarde. Ellery Balcome could only palm it out to Taylor and from Tom Hamer’s cross, Winnall is able to strike it home through a sea of bodies.

Barton said: "I thought the fans were excellent, they were behind the team. We get in the ascendency, we get in front and still driving the team on, we just needed that second goal.

"I think that second goal would have elevated the confidence levels and settled everyone down and probably not looked back from there. It didn’t happen and we’re on the canvas because we can’t manage to clear our box or keep the ball out of the net in the second period.

"We give the ball away needlessly for the second goal, have a couple of opportunities, and a moment of good defending, and good goalkeeping but you can’t keep blocking shots. We had to exit the box and we never managed to do that and we lost the game."