Rovers Relegation: The Final Word

It’s 3.56pm on Sunday 2 January 2022 at the Mazuma Stadium in Morecambe. My phone has one unread text message containing four capitalised words: ‘REPEAT NOT OVER YET’

For context, at that moment, Doncaster Rovers were 3-0 up away from home at half time against a relegation rival and looking good for their first win on the road at the twelfth time of asking.

Gary McSheffrey after that Morecambe loss

Sixty minutes later, the right boot of home midfielder Toumani Diagouraga smashed the ball in to the top corner of the net and secured a scarcely believable 4-3 comeback win for the hosts.

In fact, the second half was believable. Not only that, but it had been accurately forecast! Whether an optimist, pessimist or realist, that second half performance should have surprised absolutely nobody when it comes to talking about the crop of 2021/22.

It was a season defining moment, a six pointer which could have been the difference between League One survival and relegation. In addition to that, it served as a microcosm of how this football club has slipped back in to the basement division after a five-year absence.

Injuries, dodgy referees and Covid-19 were all well documented reasons cited by former boss Richie Wellens for underperformance. 

In truth, it was a devastating concoction of porousness at one end and profligacy at the other. Rovers shipped 3 or more goals on no less than a dozen occasions. Meanwhile they failed to score in nearly half of their league games.

Wellens’ successor, Gary McSheffrey, couldn’t halt the slide or address the deficiencies in attack which failed to give Rovers a fighting chance. Afforded the opportunity to bring 8 players to the club during the January transfer window, the attacking signings Mipo Odubeko, Reo Griffiths and Kieran Agard contributed just 4 goals in 40 appearances collectively.

With defeats expected by many and even accepted by some, McSheffrey has been left to dangle the promise that if he can’t change the people, then the people will change. What clout he has to exercise such measures remains to be seen.

He was dealt an unenviable task in his first foray in to football management and has had to front up this hospital pass of a job on several occasions. How he is being helped is also open to conjecture, though.

The club which promises a competitive financial playing budget has been anything but. Teams with lesser resources are doing more and it is becoming hard for certain quarters of the support base to stomach.

Never mind that, in a bid to rediscover the club’s identity, the stadium name changed, the kit was no longer the traditional red and white hoops and eight players were brought in on loan.

McSheffrey, it appears, look set to remain at the helm for the foreseeable future. He is the fifth manager since Darren Ferguson, who brought him to (what is now) the Eco Power Stadium, departed having earned promotion from League Two at the first time of asking.

Such a swift return this time around though seems unlikely given the current state of affairs.