Ipswich Town: Bristol Rovers boss Joey Barton on Kieran McKenna

The Blues were held to a 0-0 draw by Barton’s side, on a night where Ipswich again struggled to break down a side who sat deep to defend their box in numbers. 

After the game, McKenna revealed how Barton ‘apologised for not being willing to give us a match’. 

But Barton has moved to clarify his comments, while also suggesting McKenna is feeling pressure and speculating about the size of Town’s budget.

"I just went to him at the end of the game and said ‘Sorry we couldn’t take you on’,” Barton told the Bristol Post. 

“That’s what it meant, I wasn’t apologising for the way we played. I thought we were excellent in our strategy and really got the best opportunity to win the game by going the way we did. 

"We were far from parking the bus. It was a mid-to-deep block with some triggers we felt we could catch them on and expose them higher up the field. 

"To be fair to Kieran, he’s probably worried about four wins in 15 with a £15million budget in League One and Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth pulling away and Derby, Wycombe, Barnsley, Bolton and the group chasing closing in on them.

Kieran McKenna, pictured at Bristol Rovers (Image: Ross Halls) 

"He’s a man under pressure. I could smell that on them and I knew that before with the results profile. It was part of the reason we went with the strategy because they were nervy and on a run of drawing a lot of games and finding it hard to break teams down. 

"I was apologising and I do apologise to our fans that tune into this. I don’t want to sit and counter teams, I want to be in the middle of the ring, the middle of the pitch, with the ball taking the game to teams. 

"But sometimes you have to cut your cloth accordingly. Our budget is three-and-a-bit million, theirs is £15m. If we take them on – and we went to Portman Road earlier in the season and had a right pop at them and tried to take them on – in the moment we’re in in our stadium, we would have been gifting them points and that is not our football club.

Freddie Ladapo shows his frustration at Bristol Rovers (Image: Ross Halls) 

"We had to make a plan for that and I apologised for sitting to counter. I don’t want to be a counter-puncher, I want to be in the middle of the ring trading blows with you, but I guarantee you if the boot was on the other foot, he wouldn’t be attacking me with a £3m budget if I had a £15m budget, that’s for sure, and he wouldn’t be drawing 0-0." 

Barton continued: "To get out of there with a clean sheet and a point was a step in the right direction for us, but I’m not sure Kieran’s well versed in the Mem. He said it was a cup final for our fans and they have all turned out, but we have been at capacity since the back end of last season and I just felt that was a little bit of a strange comment. 

"Based on my CV and his CV, there is no doubt who is the A-side if there was any cup final because he was a civilian until he started coaching."