Rovers 20/21: What went wrong

Towels wrapped around their waists, one by one the Doncaster Rovers players returned to the makeshift dressing room at Bristol Rovers’ Memorial Ground. On show were drooped shoulders, slovenly gaits and bare midriffs.

Doncaster had been cruelly exposed by the worst team in the division.

Promotion aspirants? Not likely. Where once young cubs stood and bared their teeth, meek kittens eloped up the barren terrace.

By Easter Monday, their race was run - season over - and it showed.

The collective body language was rotten and awkward glances were exchanged. However, the words tumbled freely from the mouth of seasoned campaigner James Coppinger in the post-match debrief. He couldn’t help himself. He justifiably poured lashings of salt in to wounds prised open by the hosts following a 2-1 loss.

“We’re just not good enough as individuals. We were absolutely miles off it,” was the excruciatingly accurate summation.

No fairy tale ending for Coppinger

This season was veteran Coppinger’s swansong (right) and, as his subdued exit neared, he duly let rip like a grandparent who no longer craved - nor cared for - endorsements from those of a junior rank.

Time and again, all manner of people, from the keenly interested to the vaguely concerned asked the same question, “What happened to the Rovers?”

Invariably one would blow out cheeks, raise eyebrows and shrug - all in one fairly unflattering motion. Depending on how much time we had, the short answer was that I did not – and still do not – know. Not conclusively anyway.

Firstly, Covid happened. And stayed. And is still here now. That impacted the club, first and foremost, through its loss of vital matchday revenue. The team itself was the secondary victim in that the fixtures were condensed in to a scarcely reasonable time frame.

And then, there’s the third and most unlucky group, the supporters. Through no fault of their own, they had to watch a soap opera unravel remotely.

That rarely enjoyable experience itself felt like a means to an end. The BBC's ban on local radio journalists travelling to away games for the best part of three months put yours truly in exactly the same position as "virtual" spectators and coincided with a huge dip in on-pitch form. Nonetheless, the two-dimensional perspective of a game rendered it a very distant involvement.

Log on to social media after the game and if such-and-such was a ‘G.O.A.T.’ then you could you bet your last contactless fiver that Rovers had won. The opposite would inevitably follow had they lost.

Of course, the events of 1 March, when Darren Moore crossed South Yorkshire to join Championship strugglers, Sheffield Wednesday was a contributory factor.

That hurt the Rovers hierarchy who had invested financially and emotionally in Moore as well as the squad he had assembled and the fans who had idolised him as a player in the mid-nineties.

How convenient would it be to lay the collapse of a season’s work at his door, whereby Doncaster went from the dizzying heights of third place in League One in early February to an unforgivable 14^th position come the end of the season?

Very convenient. In fact, too convenient.

The fact that the club, as a whole, never recovered shows that either there wasn’t a contingency in place for his departure and/or that they relied too heavily on him.

Butler went from back line to side line

Andy Butler (right) was bestowed the role of manager, although only until the end of the season. It was hoped that he would steer the team calmly in to the end of season play-offs over the course of the remaining 18 games and transform from player to manager in the blink of an eye.

He won just four games.

The plan appeared flawed. By instilling Butler as the head honcho, the starting eleven lost a key component of its defensive unit. By the time this was realised, the damage was irreversible. Rovers were pitiful at the back and shipped 19 goals in 11 games. They kept a solitary clean sheet against a toothless, and subsequently relegated, Northampton outfit.

Whether he shouldered too much responsibility or not, only Butler really knows. He was implored by many to get back playing but initially resisted. Stubbornly yet admirably, he wanted to do things his own way. That was his sword and he fell on it. How things might have been different had a wiser aide or confidant sidled by to smooth over a rough transition.

So with Moore and Whiteman gone, Coppinger retired and Butler seemingly out of the frame for a management role which was his to lose, it would be an understatement to say that Rovers have a big job on their hands this summer.

Nonetheless, a new man will come in, hopefully with new ideas, a no-nonsense approach and a fresh pair of eyes to breathe new life in to a stagnant playing squad. Nous, steel and togetherness are qualities required at the behest of naivety and introversion if Rovers want to give themselves a fighting chance of being competitive next season.