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Joey Barton slams ex-Bristol Rovers captain over ‘disrespectful’ celebration for Shrewsbury goal

Joey Barton slams ex-Bristol Rovers captain Luke Leahy over producing a ‘disrespectful’ celebration for the opening Shrewsbury goal.

The manager claimed that Luke Leahy was “disrespectful to his former supporters” for he way he celebrated in front of the away end.

Leahy opened the scoring for Shrewsbury just three minutes in at the New Meadow in the New Meadow on Tuesday.

Leahy, a Rovers player between 2019 and 2021, and had been captain for Barton’s side at the end of 2020/21 ran away from goal straight in the direction of the Bristol Rovers fans.

As per Bristol Live, he is said to have held his gaze and pointing them towards, drawing angry responses before turning to acknowledge the home supporters.

Shrewsbury won the League One fixture 2-1 with Rob Street doubling the lead just after half time.

Josh Coburn’s close range finish gave Salop a scare, but the hosts managed to hold on for the win.

Barton said in post-match duties that the pair exchanged words at pitch side with Leahy walking his old boss clutching the man of the match champagne from the home sponsors and leaned in for a handshake before Barton made it very clear he was annoyed by the player’s celebration.

“Tremendous (support), and that’s why I was saying to Luke there when I came to the football club, he was the captain and the standards were absolutely dog s*** right across the board and he was the captain of it,” Barton said as Bristol Live. “I don’t think he was particularly well-liked by the rest of the players, there was a bit of animosity in there.

“And then he scores against us and he’s celebrating against our fans and I think it’s incredibly disrespectful. But that’s him.

“I don’t know what our fans have done other than vote him player of the year. He deserted a sinking ship that he was captain of. I get he’s got his club, but does he need to go and celebrate in front of our fans? I thought it was a strange decision from him.

“I’ve always got on with Luke, but I think it’s disrespectful to the Gasheads. He’s got his fingerprints all over a relegation as the skipper and he scores a goal here tonight and wants to noise them up. He should have more respect for our fans.

“They were incredible. Nothing to play for and 700 of them come up. That’s why I told the lads to get their shirts in and make sure they appreciate them.

“We know when we come back here next season and we have something to play for, we know we’ll have a big away contingent and fanbase following us.”

Leahy played 85 times for the Pirates, scoring 10 goals, most of them coming in his second season when he was named captain not long after Barton joined the club in February 2021 with the armband being taken off Max Ehmer.

“The pain of today and the frustration of this season kind of petering out only strengthens your mind about building a team that’s capable of getting out of this division,” Barton added.

“For us, we get this Bolton game out of the way for us now, hopefully with a good performance and result in front of our fans with another sell-out which is superb, and then on Monday morning, the hard work starts to build an exciting team for next season.

“The real positives were how the lads played. They kept pushing and they certainly had Shrewsbury pinned in their half for a lot of that game.

“The problem for us at the moment is keeping that back door locked and they were two really poor goals at the start of each half to give away and you give yourselves a mountain to climb if you are that porous in defence.”

Salop boss Steve Cotterill via the club website: “It’s nice to hear excellent win, it’s nice to hear that because it’s been a long time coming. 

“But we’ve had so many waves to try and ride over the past six weeks, it’s just been incredibly difficult. 

“We have been low on numbers, low on quality. Look at them (Bristol Rovers) making five subs – and the calibre of the subs they can bring on, they would be in our starting line-up. 

“But then they have a budget that won’t be far off twice ours. That’s why they can afford to get better players. 

“We have taken four points out of six from Bristol Rovers this year which is a good return.

“It’s funny because we did a little bit of extra work yesterday on our set-plays because I don’t think we have made the most of them. 

“And without saying that was perfect with what we rehearsed, it was perfect! 

“You wouldn’t believe it. If you’d have been here yesterday and recorded training – then we go and score that. 

“That was really, really, pleasing that we managed to get that goal which gave us a good start. 

“And I know this is going to sloppy, but for those first three minutes we were fantastic. 

“We flew out the traps and were bright at the start today. And that was important for us. That got us a good start in the game.

“It was brilliant for Rob Street. Brilliant for him. He hasn’t trained so far this week from the game at the weekend. 

“He went to his grandad’s funeral this morning. He has driven up from London today. Great credit to the kid and honestly, I could not be happier for him that that’s happened. 

“He deserves an enormous amount of credit for playing. 

“And I probably wouldn’t have taken him off, but all of a sudden, he rolled his ankle. 

“But what’s new with that – Shrewsbury picking up some sort of injury?

“I’m really pleased about that because it’s something he works on every day. 

“I think a lot of it is confidence. It’s all very well and good him coming from Crystal Palace, but he hadn’t played at League One level. 

“I think all of the loanees have been great, but we are talking about Rob at the moment because of the circumstances that involved him playing tonight. 

“He deserves huge credit. As do the other loan players, I never want to leave them out. 

“They have really been integral to the group. And the group have accepted them because they are good lads. 

“We have been extremely lucky with the loan players this year because they have really played their part.”

Twitter users had their say as Joey Barton slams the ex-Bristol Rovers captain over his ‘disrespectful’ celebration for the Shrewsbury goal…

@RuytonShrew: Barton came out with some weird quotes after we played at your place earlier in the season, though. Basically told Leahy he wasn’t a midfielder (he really is now – and a bloody good one), and said he should come back to Rovers to play proper football. He’s loved at our place now.

@pacificpaddy: Cos he’s so respectful to his former clubs: “We were the only side trying to play football. They are effective at what they do but Fleetwood fans must be disappointed that Joey Barton is not the manager because we were a miles better football team than what they are seeing”.

@dashers1886: The irony of Barton calling someone disrespectful 😂

@MrRossCGeorge: Coming from Joey Barton? 🤣🤣🤣

@Ben_Wills14: Assaulting people is disrespectful

@amorgan34: So that’s garner, tisdale & now leahys fault we got relegated … Obviously NOT the man actually in charge then… #UTG

@pacificpaddy: Hilarious how he pins relegation on his captain and not himself as manager 😂 the man had delusions of grandeur as a player and is now plain deluded as a manager!

@connor_mh: Ah yes from the very respectable Barton…

@STFC_Nathan: Barton talking about respect? Hypocrite

@GrattonRhys: Joey Barton might be the most pathetic man in English football

@Cal_Marx_: Is Barton on about the same player who went over to their fans after the game to take photos and shake their hands

@RuytonShrew: I’ll admit I was surprised by his reaction, but we don’t know what the Gas fans had been yelling at him. Also take with a pinch of salt Barton’s comment that Leahy was not liked – if so, why did he try to keep him, and why did he tell him to come back when we played them in Aug!

@tom_Salop:
He didn’t even celebrate infront of the fans
Plus went round to them after for photos ect. 😭

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