Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton has criticised Wycombe Wanderers’ alleged style of play along with the referee’s performance, following their 2-1 defeat against the Chairboys on Boxing Day.

The Pirates had taken the lead inside four minutes through Josh Coburn’s sixth of the season, before David Wheeler and Lewis Wing turned things around for Gareth Ainsworth’s side.

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The result means Wycombe are now unbeaten in their last four games where they have picked up 10 points from 12, whilst Rovers suffered only their second loss in 13 games.

After the final whistle, Barton took aim at referee Sunny Gill for his performance, claiming that he was ‘naïve’ and that some of his decisions, which included booking Bobby Thomas after seven minutes for timewasting, as ‘baffling’.

He said: “We scored early on and then one of my players is being booked for timewasting after seven minutes.

“We don’t want that as we’re a footballing team full of fit and hungry young players, and in the second half, they [Wycombe] just proceeded to take, what is known as the ‘Michael’ out of the officials.

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“They [the officials] didn’t do anything about it so it was baffling.

“We had a couple of penalty appeals turned away, a couple of their players in [Sam] Vokes and [Jordan] Obita had their elbows clash with our players’ head.

“Overall, I thought it was a strange refereeing performance.”

On Wycombe and Gareth Ainsworth, Barton added: “Gaz has done a fantastic job, he is a great guy, and the Wycombe fans are behind him.

“He took them to the Championship, and they beat us [Fleetwood Town] in the semi-final, so you have to give them credit in how they do it.

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“But do I want to do what they do? Not at all.

“I don’t want to watch 180 passes and tell players who have played in the Championship to boot the ball as high as they can, but it works for them and it's effective.

“Booting it long can get you in the Championship, but it doesn’t keep you in there.

“I wasn’t Lionel Messi, but I played three seasons outside of the Premier League in this country.

“They were all in the Championship, so I am well versed in either winning it or getting out of it and I know what it takes to keep yourselves in there.

“And booting the ball long and having wrestling matches doesn’t do that, but Wycombe beat us fair and squad.

"We play them in four weeks at home and I wouldn’t swap jobs with Gareth or swap their personnel for ours.”

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During his playing days, Barton won promotion into the Premier League in those three seasons in the Championship.

They were with Newcastle United in 2009/10, Queens Park Rangers in 2013/14, and Burnley in 2015/16 respectively. 

The latter was with Sam Vokes, with the two being teammates at Turf Moor.