Joey Barton conducted an impromptu press conference in the corridor adjacent to his manager’s office inside Bristol Rovers’ West Stand, well over an hour after earning the most incredible of final-day promotions.

It was time to try to make sense of a ludicrous afternoon, which was now thundering through the home dressing room walls.

As he walked down the tunnel to join the party, Wael al-Qadi, Rovers’ Jordanian owner, expressed it best. “I just watched a miracle in football.”

With minutes remaining in the season, he has seen his team overtake Northampton on goals scored to go into the division’s top three for the first time this season.

Barton spent Monday hiking Snowdon with his son, but this late surge into League One easily surpassed it.

After a GIF showing him predicting Rovers will be promoted after they lost 4-1 at Exeter in August, he recently admitted he looked insane.

They were a spot above the relegation zone a month later, and they were 17th on New Year’s Day.

“I suppose I’ll remember my first promotion as a coach, especially because I was in the middle of two crazy court proceedings where I had to get a CEO thrown out of a cannon, a director of football fired out of a cannon, plus approximately 15 guys mimicking footballers,” Barton said.

“It’s something I’ll think about when I’m rocking in my chair.”

The public voice announcer had kindly suggested that supporters leave the pitch after 83 minutes. Perhaps he had a forewarning.

Rovers scored their seventh goal two minutes later, leapfrogging Northampton, whose 3-1 victory at Barrow was eventually inadequate, and into the last automatic League Two promotion spot.

Elliot Anderson, a revelation since signing on loan from Newcastle in January and the hosts’ creator-in-chief on a simply fantastic afternoon, was mobbed by home fans on the Thatchers terrace.

Al-Qadi ended up on the shoulders of Rovers academy graduate Alfie Kilgour as crates of cider were brought into the home dressing room.

By 7.30 p.m., more supplies were needed.

Following the pitch invasion, referee Charles Breakspear ordered both sides off the field, and al-Qadi stepped out to appeal to fans to stay in the seats for the remaining four minutes plus stoppage time.

Barton immediately came to the microphone, warning fans that if they returned to the field a second time, the game would be abandoned.

He said, “Please stay off the pitch.” As the final whistle blew, the Football Association was faced with yet another pitch invasion. As fans pulled Barton into the air, a blue haze descended.

Fourth-placed Rovers were one of five clubs in contention for third place at the start of the day, but they needed a five-goal swing in their favor.

Their higher goal total (70 to 61) paid off in the end. When asked when he thought promotion was on, Barton said, “Before kick-off, I was going to tweet at 2.59 p.m. that we’d finish it because I was so confident.”

He promised to go for broke and kept his word, playing two center-backs, wing-backs, and a rush goalie to remove the stabilizers.

Glenn Whelan, 38, with whom Barton played for Everton’s Under-15s, kept things in check at the base of midfield.

After 22 minutes, Rovers were on the right track thanks to an own goal by Scunthorpe’s teenage debutant Oliver Lobley and a header by Connor Taylor, but the floodgates did not open until Aaron Collins scored the first of his two goals on 53 minutes, thumping a shot into the far corner.

From then, the objectives followed. On the hour, Anthony Evans drove in and then scored a superb free-kick with 14 minutes remaining. The fans chanted, “We want ten.” Collins made it six before Anderson came in to bring the game to a close.

When Barton emerged from the tunnel, he mimicked Jürgen Klopp by punching the air three times in front of the remaining supporters on the home terrace.

“He [Barton] is a football genius, and he’s only getting started,” al-Qadi added.

“With the prospect of the game being abandoned after working so hard to get there, we had to make sure that everyone knew what was at stake, which I believe we did.”

“Everything works out in the end. Gloucester Road seems to be calling my name.”