The Sporting Hack

Chesterfield 5-2 Doncaster Rovers Grant McCann didn’t flinch.  His side are 3-1 behind in a local derby with less than an hour played.  The game is not drifting away from Doncaster, it’s galloping towards the sunset.  Hesitancy proved the visitors undoing with the first concession as keeper Ted Sharman-Lowe came out, retreated and slipped. Bim Pepple then doubled the advantage and the task at hand.  Rovers have not won a league game this season in which they’ve conceded the first goal.  Despite Luke Molyneux’s strike just before half time which had got them back in the game, it is the manager’s turn to throw caution to the wind, after Chesterfield’s third via the pint-sized Olakigbe. Reminiscent of the Guinness surfing advert of yesteryear ; “He waits...tick followed tock followed tick...”  There is no sense of animation, no panic, no troops being readied for action. Where are the calls for reinforcements or the change in approach? Where are the squad playe...

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...

In the end, it was the Doncaster Rovers board who blinked first. And, in fairness, they didn’t have much choice in the matter. Their failure to put Richie Wellens – and the thousands of supporters who idolised him as a player – out of his misery would have all but signalled the hierarchy’s disregard for the current season and beyond. Wellens speaks to the media Can a club ‘take the hit’ of meekly accepting relegation before Christmas? No, and nor should they. Rovers, are in a tight spot, make no bones about it. So, they had to do something to initiate a response from a squad that has, thus far, laboured to 13 points from 19 league games - incredibly, they’re still not bottom of the pile. And so the axe fell on Wellens. The Rovers suits knew what they were getting when they appointed him, or certainly they thought they did. A ‘heart-on-sleeve’ former midfield general could galvanise an alienated fan base from the dugout. This wasn’t “married at first sight” either, Rovers had a good lon...

The temperature gun was pointed at my forehead. “35.8,” proclaimed the friendly Lancastrian stood in a makeshift tarpaulin shelter, set up in a small car park. He smiled and nodded. Entry to the stadium was permitted.  With the pang of anxiousness which briefly washed over me vanquished, I picked up my commentary equipment and shuffled on. Instructions were read out by the person who handed me my media accreditation, not that I paid attention too intently. Though each stadium was laid out slightly differently – turn right for the toilets, left for the coffee and so on – it was never that hard to tailgate, within reason, someone who had listened. Truth be told, for the 39 th game of a truly bizarre season, I'd heard it all before. And yet, I could not have wished to be anywhere else but here. The Crown Ground, home of Accrington Stanley, the club that wouldn’t die. The homely, reassuring Crown Ground They are the very antithesis to every column inch and every second of sports...

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 Coppinge...

EFL SkyBet League 1 Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster (Att: 7,222) Tuesday 23 April 2019 Doncaster left the play-off door ajar after Accrington all but confirmed their safety by ending the hosts 13 game unbeaten home run. Grant McCann’s men have a three-point lead over Peterborough below them but have played a game more than his former employers at London Road. It was two moments of quality which put a hold on any post-season plans for the Yorkshiremen though. Sean McConville registered his eleventh goal of the campaign when he side footed home on the volley Paul Smyth’s inch perfect right wing cross from close range in emphatic fashion. The long-serving winger should have doubled his – and his team’s – tally less than fifteen minutes from the break when he created some space for himself inside the penalty area but inexplicably curled wide from 14 yards. Home skipper Tommy Rowe’s turn and shot – which was repelled at close quarters by visiting ‘keeper Jonathan M...

EFL SkyBet League 1 Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster (Att: 6,907) Tuesday 26 March 2019 Not quite at the stage of having to pull rabbits out of the hat to maintain their play-off push, Doncaster ensured they took maximum advantage of their ace up their sleeve - a game in hand – to return to the much sought after sixth spot. Veteran magician James Coppinger helped himself to a couple of goals as the hosts cast a spell over Graham Coughlan’s bamboozled outfit. The Dubliner looked on forlornly while his opposite number, Belfast-born Grant McCann, marvelled at the performance of a man just nine months his junior. Coppinger, the old hand, relaxed a slightly anxious crowd early on when, with less than three minutes gone, he turned 12 yards out and saw his left footed shot squirm meekly underneath the body of visiting ‘keeper Jack Bonham. By the quarter hour mark, Coppinger had doubled his nights – and, in fact, his season’s – goal tally in far more emphatic fashion to put ...

Valentine’s spirit will soon make way for FA Cup romance this weekend as fans of League 1 club Doncaster Rovers could see their side break new ground when they face Premier League outfit Crystal Palace. It wasn’t so much Cupid’s arrow as Ian Wright’s hand which bequeathed Doncaster a home tie against former England boss Roy Hodgson’s side and it is they who stand in the way of the Yorkshiremen penning a previously untold chapter in their 140-year history. A win against the two-time runners up would present the play-off hopefuls with another sizeable cash injection – doubling their prize money alone to a figure in the region of £750,000 – but the scent of history making is what appeals most to 22 goal striker, John Marquis. “Whether this Doncaster team does or doesn’t get through, we’ve already made a bit of history in being the first for 63 years (to get to the fifth round) but if we can just go that next step then in 50 or 60 years from now, people will hopefully be talk...

Darren Ferguson doesn’t suffer fools. Not players, press or board members. A conflict of views with the latter proved to be the catalyst from his departure from Doncaster Rovers. I was there for his unveiling as manager in October 2015 (above) and was present at what proved to be his final post-match interview 928 days later following a dour goalless draw with AFC Wimbledon. He looked fed up. In his first interview though he was bristling with eagerness and wanted to cut short the pleasantries in order to get on with the job in hand. Doncaster had begun the 15/16 season sluggishly but shaking them out of their slumber never seemed insurmountable for the Scot who boasted prior success at Peterborough. Rovers were relegated but Ferguson stayed put. He was going to have to be pushed before he would walk and highlighted once more his belligerent streak. The louder the dissenting voices grew, the more he dug his heels in – it was admirable in a way. A summer rebuild was ...

Darren Ferguson’s departure from Doncaster Rovers on Monday evening received indifference from most quarters. Fergie's time is up While foreign supporters wave white handkerchiefs as an expression of disgust, no one in South Yorkshire, it seemed, was reaching to mop away the tears for the outgoing boss who had taken Rovers sideways, at best, and then left midway through the first screening of this year’s Love Island. That may seem harsh, but the consensus that Rovers players were “on the beach” towards the end of the season was inescapable. Anyone who thinks differently – particularly when a side goes five games without scoring - has their heads buried in the sand. Ferguson arrived a dozen games in to the ill-fated 15/16 season and attempted to pick up compatriot Paul Dickov’s tatty rag of a squad. It was to get worse before it got better. Players who were past their best and on big money were not ideal ingredients to avoid a second relegation in three seasons. Nonethel...

Doncaster Rovers 1-1 Rotherham United EFL SkyBet League 1 Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster (Att: 12,428) Saturday 11 November 2017 Rotherham snatched a point with the last kick of this encounter against bitter South Yorkshire rivals Doncaster. The Millers dug in to the very dark depths of their reserves to register an equaliser in the 96 th minute thanks to their on-loan hit man Kieffer Moore (right). In a region where a spade is called a spade, there was little getting away from the fact that it was a scrappy match that looked as though it was going to be decided by Richard Wood’s own goal just after the hour. If familiarity breeds contempt, then the absence of each other’s presence for close to eleven years led to Doncaster and Rotherham struggling to work each other out for the best part of the opening half an hour. Only James Coppinger’s well taken finish – which was ruled out for offside – and a half-hearted appeal for a penalty, when striker John Marquis took a...

PREVIEW: Doncaster Rovers v Rotherham United SkyBet League 1, Sat 11 November 2017 (12:30pm), Keepmoat Stadium. Teams representing two forgotten post industrial South Yorkshire towns - in Doncaster and Rotherham - go head to head on Saturday at “dinner” time, as the locals would call it. People in posh areas, like Sheffield – who boast a gleaming ‘Steel City’ derby – have lunch, while Rovers and Millers fans enjoy scraps, yet the allure of this fixture won’t be lost on the supporters who’ll revel in their share of the satellite spotlight. And while a culinary theme pervades, there is the sense that the reason these two old foes haven’t crossed paths for more than a decade is that they’re either feast or famine. Last season, the sides were two divisions apart, with the Millers dining among the Championship’s financially gluttonous elite and duly coming unstuck under the stewardship of three managers. The latest on that list, Paul Warne (below right), was an impish strik...

Former Wrexham manager Dean Saunders crosses swords with former Racecourse Ground veteran midfielder Darren Ferguson for the second time this season. The Welshman was victorious over the Scot in the sweltering heat of London Road back in October as Rovers prospered 2-1 thanks to a thirty yard wonder strike from Brian Stock and Kyle Bennett’s winner. The only win in the last five games for either team was Peterborough’s 3-0 demolition last weekend of troubled Bristol City which saw the Posh rise to the comfort of 18 th place. Rovers, by contrast, will have to show character if they are to get a maximum for the first time since the start of the year and try and climb out of trouble as they languish in 24th. Rovers will also have to try and avenge last week’s 3-2 defeat suffered at Elland Road without injured quartet James Coppinger (cheekbone), Habib Bamogo (hamstring), George Friend and Martin Woods (both knee). Mamadou Bagayoko, the rangy Malian striker, who had given Rovers a tw...

A little over a year ago I left the Keepmoat Stadium on a Tuesday night a disgruntled fellow – local rivals Barnsley had eased to a 2-0 win over Doncaster Rovers. The only solace was to be found, of all places, in Blackpool. At Bloomfield Road to be precise, where the Tangerines had thrown away a two goal lead against Manchester United to lose 3-2. It was consoling for the fact that, as very much an anti-Manchester United fan, I was also in the miniscule minority of the footballing world who also wanted Blackpool to struggle and accordingly had struck a £5 bet with my father that they would be relegated despite their lofty – and comfortable – position of twelfth. Why? From a hazy recollection I was watching Match of the Day while inebriated and said that I thought the Seasiders were the sort of side who were either red hot or ice cold – far too inconsistent, and therefore said “These lot will go down.” My dad, who does not part with money easily, smelled a bet – and one that ...