Joey Barton reveals Bristol Rovers experiment that affects Brentford man

Joey Barton says that goalkeeper Jed Ward will get an opportunity to prove himself at Bristol Rovers before the end of the current season.

The 40-year-old considered bringing Ward on at half-time against Sheffield Wednesday, but persisted with first-choice goalkeeper James Belshaw. Ward, an academy graduate of the Gas, has made one league appearance for the club, which was against Blackpool in May 2021, with Barton handing him his senior debut.

To date, the 19-year-old has made four first team appearances for Rovers, but his last outing for the club was against Exeter City in the EFL Trophy in October 2021. He was an understudy to Belshaw for the second part of last season's promotion winning campaign out of League Two.

Ward has spent the majority of the season on loan at Hungerford Town, but trained with Rovers before training and playing for the non-league side. The Bristol-born shot stopper kept seven clean sheets in 24 matches in the National League South for Hungerford, who are fighting for their life in the sixth tier of English football.

In his pre-match press conference, he said: “I think I’d like to give him some experience, it’s difficult with a young keeper. We pulled him back off his loan where he was playing because Anss picked up a bit of an injury. At some point we’ve got to have a look at him, we’ve got five games here where we can have a bit of a look at a couple of players to see how far away or close players are. When Jed was put in against Blackpool, it felt like it was an eternity ago, he was thrown in at the deep end and I thought he did remarkably well on the day.

“Since then, he’s had time to develop and mature and gets his loan. We’ve got to see where he is in the picture of things in terms of can he challenge Belly next season or do we need to bring in somebody else to create that competition? Jed is certainly someone who has a big future ahead of him.

“For me, I do see him as a Rovers number one going down the track, how close or far away he is to it, we won’t know until we throw him in. This five game period, we will definitely see Jed Ward start a game for us now and the end of the season.”

He was recalled earlier this month because of injuries to Anssi Jaakola and Ellery Balcombe. Balcombe was brought in to provide competition for Belshaw, but after playing five matches, was dropped and has since been unable to displace the fan favourite Beslhaw. The on-loan Brentford keeper has a knee injury, which has seen him miss the last four matches, and with his loan deal up at the end of the season, it could mean the last time he has played for the club.

“He’ll join back in training,” said Barton when asked what Ward’s chance could mean for Ballcombe. “I want to give Jed a go because he is ours and he’s a young player. Belly will play some game games for us as well, if there is an opportunity he gets back fit and trains well he may well get an opportunity as well.

“You’ve got to use the beauty of the situation that we are in in terms of having a look at people as to what is to come in the medium and long term.”

Player-coach Jaakola, who is out-of-contract this summer, has also been sidelined with a calf problem. The Finnish goalkeeper is one of the most longest-serving players at the club, but has found himself out-of-favour as well as contending with injury problems over the last two seasons.

Rovers have five matches left this season with four consecutive away matches, starting with a trip to managerless Port Vale (April 22), before finishing the campaign against promotion-chasing Bolton on Sunday, May 7 at the Memorial Stadium. Barton’s men have all-but secured survival for next season after reaching the 52 point target set out by him at the start of the season. As a result, the club have begun contract talks with those out-of-contract.