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Occasionally, Joey Barton walks into a team meeting at Bristol Rovers and opens by saying, ‘Guys, I know this is going to sound crazy…’
The assembled players can get a deep introduction to a philosophical concept, one from last year on “Jungian archetypes on embracing fear.”
Or the team can hear something about football history, like Franco Baresi and the Italian school of defense.
Aaron Collins is enjoying a prolific season in League One having helped Bristol Rovers win promotion in most dramatic fashion in May.
Rover manager Joey Barton isn’t shy about drawing on non-football topics to inspire his players.
Barton believes in broadening minds and horizons and his holistic approach is paying off at Rovers. One who has fully bought into his methods is Welsh striker Aaron Collins, currently in the form of his life.
“We do things that, the word he uses is ‘nutty,’ but he believes in it and it’s gotten him to where he is today,” says Collins. sports mail.
‘He brings out certain things with the team and people. If you don’t believe, he obviously tries to make you believe. If you believe, he feels that he has put everyone on the same page.
‘He knows everyone is sitting there thinking, ‘what did the mobster just say?’
“But then, he’ll explain himself and say, ‘Guys, I know this sounds crazy, but that’s how I work and that’s how I want the team to run.
Collins won the Vertu Motors League One Player of the Month award for October in a fan vote
Collins played a key role in Rovers’ promotion last season when they beat Northampton Town
‘Last season, when we lost 4-1 to Exeter at the end of August, he came out and said we would be promoted. Everyone was asking ‘why does he say that with the way we started the season?’
‘But in December or January, everyone was believing.’
It certainly was a campaign the 25-year-old Collins will never forget. It took him 19 games to get his first goal for Rovers after joining Forest Green, a frustrating three months during which he had to draw on Barton’s reserves of faith and patience.
But 18 goals, a breathless rise to automatic promotion third place in League Two and one of the most dramatic last days ever afterwards, Collins found himself drinking beer on top of a traffic light while cheered on by hundreds of raving fans.
The Welsh striker is seen in action against his former club Forest Green after moving in 2021
That goalscoring form has carried over seamlessly into League One, with Collins scoring 11 times in 21 games so far and picking up the Vertu Motors PFA League One Player of the Month award for October.
Of course, League One has continued despite everything during the World Cup and Barton’s side beat Port Vale on Saturday, thanks to a late winner from Collins, to move up to 12th in the table.
They will take on MK Dons in the Papa John’s Trophy on Tuesday night.
“I finished last season full of confidence and happiness with the promotion and going into this season, everything flowed,” says Collins.
There have been times when League One teams have been interested, but the managers have never really trusted me. They didn’t know if I could level up, etc.
Collins scores Bristol Rovers’ sixth goal against Scunthorpe on that dramatic final day
“I’ve played a lot of my career in League Two and after getting promoted, it was like ‘okay, I’m in League One. It was time to show that I could perform in League One and maybe higher levels.
“The coach makes you believe in many things that at that moment you don’t think are possible, like he had faith in me, I came and finished as the top scorer.” So I continued this season playing to the best of my ability.’
It is certainly worth remembering the extraordinary final day of League Two in May that returned Rovers to the third tier on first wondering.
Before kick-off, Rovers needed to better Northampton Town’s result or win by five more goals than their promotion rivals to wrest third place from them. The chances seemed slim, to say the least.
“We only got two goals in the first half and we went into halftime and we saw they were 3-0 up, so we knew we needed six or seven,” recalls Collins.
At that point, Collins looked towards the bench and was told that the team needed to score another
“Everybody knew that even if we didn’t get those six or seven goals, we knew that what we had done was good enough.”
“From January 16 to 1, we went on to challenge for automatic promotion, so we knew it was good enough and this was just the icing on the cake.
‘Scoring seven was a miracle, but we went and did it.
‘I remember scoring the sixth goal. In my head, I was like “we need one more”. I looked over at the bench and I remember the boss saying “calm down” and holding up his finger to say “we need one more”. [because Northampton had conceded and were only leading 3-1].
Then Elliot Anderson scored the seventh goal and all the fans ran onto the field. We went into the dressing room as the pitch was being cleared and saw that Northampton had finished 3-1 and we were promoted if we didn’t concede in the last 10 minutes.”
After what seemed like an eternity, the final whistle signaled Rovers’ return to League One and sparked a second pitch invasion. Jeff Stelling described the feat as a “mission impossible” on Soccer Saturday.
The rest of the day is a blur for Collins.
Jubilant fans invaded the pitch after the seventh goal, causing a delay until the end
Barton had maintained from the start of the season that Rovers would win promotion.
“We were five or six, we left the stadium, we went down the nearest road and we saw about a thousand fans in the street and we went out to enjoy ourselves,” he says.
“The fans, they’re there all season, they pay their hard-earned money to come and support us, so we were able to pay them back by being promoted.
“Being at Gloucester Road with the fans was something I’ll never forget. I can’t fully remember how or why I got on the lamppost, but the adrenaline and the booze, I wanted to have a good night celebrating! The fans were handing out drinks dexterously and sinister.
Collins’ video clip about the stoplight remains pinned to the top of his Twitter account and he was recently shocked that a die-hard fan immortalized the moment outside the Royal Oak pub by tattooing it on his leg.
‘I’m thinking ‘what the hell? How is this happening?’ The photo has entered the books of legends, a great moment for me and for the club.”
He certainly vindicated the striker’s decision to return to Rovers, where he played in the youth ranks between the ages of nine and 15 before joining local club Newport County.
Such had been his start in League One, there were rumors that Collins could receive a surprise call-up to the Wales World Cup squad, despite not having a senior international cap.
That was always a bit of a stretch, but it certainly hasn’t ruled out the possibility of Rob Page eyeing Euro 2024.
‘I never expected to be called up to the World Cup team. If it had happened, I would have made a living for myself, but at the end of the day, they had a lot of better attacking players who play in the Premier League and the Championship,” he said.
‘I knew I had done well, I put my name in the hat, but I really didn’t expect it.
‘It would be a dream for me to play for my country in the first team. Hopefully now I can continue my form and go into next year and try to reach the Euro qualifiers in March.”
That’s certainly not ‘wacky’.