Lee Johnson has been chatting about the possibility of signing Dion Sanderson permanently and burying the Joey Barton hoodoo…
SANDERSON
"We've always been in contact with Wolves, but he is a Wolves player isn't he - even if we were [having those kind of talks] we couldn't really disclose it. Also, as a player you want to play as high as you can, as long as you can. Even the line of questioning with Dion is difficult for me because we are trying to keep him focused, and concentrated on the process rather than putting too much stuff in his head. I can understand why people have to do their jobs and ask those questions, but at the same time it is probably a lesson for me - I shouldn't have put him in front of the media at that point, I should have waited a little bit longer. We all know how pleased we are with Dion and how well he is doing, so we'll just have to see.”
BARTON
"It's another one of these Sunderland hoodoos, so it's another one we have to try and banish. Joey has gone to Bristol Rovers, he's brave, it's a good club - obviously I know a lot about it from being in and around the area for so long. They are fighting for their lives, and there's no better person to have at the helm when they are fighting for their lives because Joey has been a winner all his career. I was at the game on Tuesday night. It was a scrappy but committed affair from both teams, and Bristol Rovers were really unlucky because they should have had the first goal - it was never offside - but Swindon then came back into it and scored, and then they defended for their lives. They have different threats. Their left wingback is their top scorer, the two boys up top are a handful and we are going to have to be at our best like against every team in this division."
