‘Quality’ Sheffield Wednesday admission from Bristol Rovers boss – several Owls stars name-dropped

The Owls face the Gas at 8pm on Wednesday evening as they seek a return to winning ways after drawing away at Lincoln City, however Barton’s side are in a rich vein of form and will certainly fancy their chances after drawing 2-2 with league leaders, Plymouth Argyle over the weekend.

They certainly won’t be favourites, though, and the Rovers boss name-dropped a few players that he felt made Darren Moore’s team a ‘top side’.

“They’ve got some really talented boys,” he told the media. “Josh Windass played with me at Rangers, he’s a talented kid. Obviously, (Michael) Smith, the boy they took from Rotherham, and Lee Gregory… The quality of Barry Bannan and Will Vaulks. Top side. Hillsborough will be full hopefully on Wednesday, then again it’s on Sky so I don’t know.

“They’ll be expected to beat us, a newly promoted team. We’ll go there with a spring in our step because of the second half (against Plymouth). We’ll have absolutely no fear, we’ll go there and attack them. We’ve got everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

It’s been over a decade since the Owls last faced the Pirates, however they did win their last home meeting by a dominant scoreline as they won 6-2 in December 2010.

The Owls have lost only two of their 13 historical meetings against them, and you have to go back to 1959 to find the last time it happened.

Wednesday will be hoping to make sure that’s still the case come Thursday morning.

MORE: Barton ‘can’t bear’ Hillsborough – but says he loves Wednesday as a club