Gary McSheffrey is looking for progress for Rovers in the final Papa John’s Trophy group tie - both in result and performance terms.
McSheffrey revealed he intends to use the break from league action to hand valuable game time to players but is determined for Rovers to win the tie, with a point needed to book a place in the knockout stages.
McSheffrey on building from the Lincoln City game, last time out in the competition:
“Making a lot of changes, squad players and players coming back from injury getting valuable minutes, it was a really good result and a good performance, especially in the second half.
“We want to repeat that.”
On how Rovers will line up:
“There’s good opportunities for players to come in for this game and a lot of players are needing the minutes.
‘We’ll mix up what we do but we should have a decent team.
“It keeps the squad healthy and it keeps the competition healthy. If we can get some of the injured players back and they stay fit, it’ll improve us no end.”
On the test of Barnsley:
“We don’t know what type of team they’re going to bring. They’ve got a good squad, good players, so whoever they put out is going to be capable.
“Michael Duff has gone in there and he’s trying to play the same as he did at Cheltenham. It might take some time but he’s got some good results so far. He’s a good coach and I’m sure he’ll get it going there and get them back to where they need to be.
“We have to look after ourselves, make sure we get our game in order, and go out there to implement what we want in the game.
“It’ll be a good game. We’ve had a really good session preparing for it and we go in trying to win it to get through to the knockout stages.
“We want to build on the second half positives from Saturday. That was the focus of the analysis - taking the positives out of the weekend.”