This is what Bristol Rovers boss Joey Barton makes of ‘wounded’ MK Dons

Joey Barton says he is unlikely to make many changes to his Bristol Rovers side for the test of MK Dons.

The Gas claimed a 2-1 win over Cambridge United on Saturday, ending an eight-match winless run thanks to goals from Josh Coburn and Luca Hoole.

Rovers played in a 4-3-1-2 formation, making two changes from the 2-2 draw with Exeter but making a change in team shape.

With several players back from injury, Barton was able to introduce players off the bench to see the game out.

As for the team to start against Buckinghamshire tonight, it is likely that not many changes will be made with no real injury fears from Saturday.

In his pre-match press conference, he said: “For us now we go into a block of games of Saturday-Tuesday, it’s nice to do that when you’ve got players returning from injury. We’ve got a healthy squad now, we’re keen to keep momentum and keep driving up the table.

“For us, we want to keep a consistent team selection because that usually means you are winning games.

“We’ve had some players take on a lot of minutes there who haven’t played a lot in recent weeks.

“We’ll assess them and make a plan to take maximum points out of the MK game.”

As for the hosts, Rovers face a side that were at the right end of the competition last year, competing in the League One play-offs.

The Dons eventually lost to losing finalists Wycombe Wanderers in the two legs, despite being the higher-ranked side with a third placed finish.

Liam Manning’s side finished a point off of the automatic positions after a dramatic final day of the regular season.

This year however they find themselves in the relegation zone having sold Scott Twine to Burnley and Harry Darling to Swansea City.

Their poor-run-of-form is something Barton wants to make the most of.

Barton said: “They’re at the wrong end of the table for them. They lost Scott Twine to Burnley and two other players who naturally would get picked off you if you do really well in League One and don’t manage to convert that into a promotion to the Championship.

“They will be desperate to kick start their season, they’re at home, they’ll be aware of the perilless position in and around the drop zone.

“They’ll see us an opportunity to kick start their season. We’ve got to make sure we carry the momentum from the previous week and start to build a really good run and push the club where we want to be in the table.

He added: “I think they have got their way of playing and it’s been successful for them over the time that Liam has been in there. Obviously this season they’ve got some reasoning, losing Twine who’s a talisman. Similar to us you lose your creative force and we know just too well how that can disrupt the team and the harmony in the group.

“We’ve got to go there and be solid. They will be a wounded animal having lost a game, the manager will be looking for a response. They’ll be in their own stadium and we’ll go there full of confidence after a win hunting down maximum points.”