Injury-hit Rovers facing striker shortage for Cobblers fixture

'Without having any strikers, we’ve got enough attacking options because the whole team is weighing in with goals.'
Luke Thomas.Luke Thomas.
Luke Thomas.

Bristol Rovers are facing something of a striker shortage for tomorrow's Sky Bet League Two game against Northampton at the Memorial Stadium.

Harvey Saunders has been ruled out for the rest of the year after sustaining ankle ligament damage while Leon Clarke is also sidelined for the long-term and Brett Pitman continues to nurse a groin injury.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Playmaker Luke Thomas is the latest to go down with injury and he looks a doubt for the weekend.

"He hasn’t trained as yet so I’m highly doubtful of that," said Rovers boss Joey Barton. "It might come too soon for him, we’ll have to reassess and see if he’s Tuesday, but at this moment in time I don’t think he’s going to be fit and available for Saturday’s game."

On his lack of options at the top end of the pitch, Barton added: "We scored two goals (at Oxford in the cup) and there was an argument we could have scored more. They cleared one off the line, Evo hit the post, really good save from Sammy Nicholson in the second-half.

"Without having any strikers, we’ve got enough attacking options because the whole team is weighing in with goals.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"You saw on Wednesday night, the striker we have got fit, Aaron (Collins), is desperately trying to score but can’t score at the minute, but the rest of the group are weighing in. Westy’s weighed in with a goal, Nick Anderton gets another one and obviously young Ryan Jones.

"There’s goals coming from everywhere in the team, albeit I’d like to have a major source of goals in terms of a 20-25 goal-a-season striker. They make a hell of a difference."