Joey Barton’s ‘unfortunate’ claim about forgotten Bristol Rovers man

Joey Barton has described Bristol Rovers deadline day signing Calum MacDonald as ‘unfortunate’ after having limited opportunities.

MacDonald joined the Gas on a six-month loan deal from Stockport County, but has ben limited to just a handful of opportunities. The 25-year-old has played twice this season and hasn’t yet completed a match.

He has not been involved in the last four match day squads and time is running out for the former

Derby County defender to earn a new deal. The form and performances of Lewis Gordon, who is contracted until 2024 is why Macdonald hasn’t been able to start. Despite his lack of play time, Barton has said that the arrival of MacDonald has made his left-back rival Gordon a better player.

“He’s been superb Calum he really has,” began Barton in his pre-match press conference.

“He’s been unfortunate that arriving at the club coincided with Lewis Gordon probably playing his best football.

“It’s why you need competition for places, if there is only one player they get complacent all of a sudden, you put someone in that might take your place and the intensity dial and standards get nudged up a touch.

“We’re happy with Lewis but he’s (Calum) ran in to Lewis hitting a really good spell of form and it’s quite tough to shift that out of the team.”

The 40-year-old hinted in his press conference that goalkeeper Jed Ward will get an opportunity before the season is out. James Belshaw is currently the first choice but the next few matches could be an audition for Ward to prove that he can be an understudy in League One next season.

Rovers’ place in the division is secure after reaching the 52 point-mark and the next few matches will be a chance for Barton to experiment with his side. Several of his players are out of contract with loan deals also expiring but despite that there won’t be wholesale changes.

The back line has settled as of late despite a change in shape with two centre-backs against Derby and then three against Sheffield Wednesday. Rovers still have plenty of the promotion-chasing teams to play and wants to ensure he names a strong team before in each game is out to respect the integrity of the competition.

He said: “If the opportunity presents itself now until the end of the season, I think there will be a few of them chomping at the bit for minutes, and Callum will be one of them. We won’t be giving any charity appearances out, it’ll be people who we feel deserve it.

“The goalkeeper one is a bit trickier because you can’t put them on from the bench or it’s more difficult to do. If I was to choose young Jed I wouldn’t want to make a load of changes in front of him to give us the best chance what he can do.

“In the next few games it will present itself, it might be sods law where everybody is fit for every moment and everyone feels fantastic.

“We’ll have to pick the strongest team, it’s a nice spot to be in because you have that freedom to experiment a little bit. We’ve got to make sure we absolutely do the best to fulfil the integrity of the competition.

“If someone on our run would have done that last year it might have cost us so we’ll be trying to win every game. We can take advantage that we don’t have a promotion or relegation to play for this year.”