The Sporting Hack

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...

In ‘To Hull and Back,’ arguably the jewel in the crown of the much-loved sitcom ‘Only Fools and Horses’ exquisitely written by the late John Sullivan, ‘Boycie’ – a crooked second-hand car salesman played by John Challis – sniffs the chance to make a few quid by smuggling diamonds from Holland. However, he and Del Trotter, with whom he is in cahoots, are denied at the last by the Old Bill. Jim Broadbent’s character Chief Inspector Slater is the real brains behind the operation, allowing petty criminals to take the risks while he makes a profit. Fearing jail, Boycie and Del are offered a simple alternative; “Why don’t we pretend that this never happened?” Brushing the whole saga under the carpet and forgetting about it is football’s forte. Dutchman Phillip Cocu, manager of Derby County Football Club since July this year, also recently had some precious cargo being transported. Namely his club captain and Republic of Ireland international, Richard Keogh. Regrettably, despite b...

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...

I broke out in a cold sweat. It was the middle of the night – 4:16am to be precise – and I’d wrestled like a Panamanian defender or a politician for power with the idea that what if, tonight, the best team won? A clean, straight battle, akin to what we’d seen in the France v Belgium game, between two teams who have exceeded expectations to get to the semi-final? Samuel Umtiti scored the winning goal in a fair contest untainted by drama or allegations, leaving three teams. And yet, the raging pessimist inside my head reminds me that England, should they lose to Croatia, can still finish fourth. The phrase “don’t get your hopes up” was coined, I’m sure, with the England football team in mind. The thought of bowing out gracefully in the semi-finals fleetingly appeals instead of suffering the gut-wrenching agony and potential worldwide humiliation of being inglorious runners up to our Gallic neighbours. Croatia will pose England’s sternest test of the tournament to date. The sprink...

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...

In my younger years, I was prophetically – and accurately - told I would like three things in life; cricket, curries and beer. In short, it proved true. Though battling baltis and hangovers is now more my staple than facing the short ball. The assumption that fewer kids are interested in watching a bat v ball contest forms part of my (wider than I’d realised) disillusionment with the game but could it be considered cricket’s own fault? Rewind to 1998 and the fifth and final day of the South Africa test at Headingley and you’ll understand that my first experience of cricket, aged eight, was a perfect one. A dramatic series win proved seminal for English cricket. And though I had no real appreciation of what Darren Gough was doing, both technically and contextually, in skittling the Proteas, I just wanted to be like him so would re-enact his nuances as I would, say, Alan Shearer. And, shortly after receiving a Nasser Hussain playing card for the 1999 World Cup from school, I re...

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...

Courtesy of @drfc_official Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Portsmouth EFL SkyBet League 1 Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster (Att: 7,211) Tuesday 17 October 2017 Doncaster recorded back to back wins for the first time this season and for just the sixth time at home since Portsmouth were last in town in January’s League Two encounter. Pompey were crowned kings of the fourth tier after the Yorkshire side spectacularly threw away a hefty points advantage in the race for the title. However the south coast side couldn’t repeat a similar feat over 90 minutes having put themselves behind the eight ball almost from the off. Doncaster’s Liam Mandeville, the forward with just four league starts this campaign, was deemed the only available striker at Darren Ferguson’s disposal. He simply shrugged off the notion that the responsibility may be too much for his youthful shoulders by notching inside the opening three minutes of the game. Tommy Rowe’s persistent run to the edge of the box and pr...

Courtesy of @drfc_official Doncaster Rovers 4-1 Southend United EFL SkyBet League 1 Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster (Att: 7369) Saturday 7 October 2017 Ben Whiteman’s ten-minute hat-trick saw Doncaster come from behind in the second half to beat Southend.  The Sheffield United loanee slotted, thundered and caressed strikes home all within the space of 600 seconds to give Darren Ferguson’s men their first win at home since they sealed their promotion to the third tier in early April. It was all going so well for the Shrimpers who led through Anthony Wordsworth’s first half header but they must wince at the memories of trips to South Yorkshire having suffered a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Rotherham just two months previously. When Wordsworth struck, in the 38 th minute, some could argue that he was lucky to be on the pitch having given Doncaster – and their midfielder Jordan Houghton – a kick up the backside. Despite consulting his assistant and the fourth of...

Doncaster 22- 16 Featherstone Kingstone Press Championship Keepmoat Stadium, attendance – 1317 Doncaster player/coach Paul Cooke can add the title of ‘matchwinner’ to his ever growing list of roles and responsibilities within the south Yorkshire club’s ranks following his 70 th minute try which salvaged a creditable win over highly-fancied Featherstone. Cooke-d to perfection The 32 year old (right) was the difference between the two sides and his majestic dummy late on was fit to settle any game in a contest where Doncaster held the lead for the large part. After Dave Scott and Jay Pitts had helped the hosts in to a 12 point lead before the half hour mark, their biggest enemy was a near-crippling penalty count against them; their ill-discipline only outdone by the weather and subsequent bouts of hail.   Featherstone got off the mark just before half time when Ian Hardman pounced on a chip through to race clear and halve the deficit and, though Stewart San...

Pointing in the right direction: Dickov Doncaster Rovers 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday Skybet Championship Keepmoat Stadium, attendance – 12609 “It wasn’t the best we’ve played by any means recently but sometimes you’ve got to really roll your sleeves up, dig in and get a result,” were the words of a delighted Doncaster Rovers boss Paul Dickov as his side edged this south Yorkshire derby and gave their survival hopes a massive boost in the process. Rovers moved eight points clear of the trap door thanks to Chris Brown’s 32 nd minute strike; completing a satisfying double over their neighbours. Owls boss Stuart Gray said his side’s efforts were an “off day” as his team slumped to their first defeat in three outings. “When you’re on top you’ve got to convert your chances. Our crossing was poor and our shooting was poor.” Gray wasn’t wrong, the visitor’s best chance fell to Leon Best whose shot was smartly saved by Sam Johnstone while Rovers utilised their set pieces bet...

While the achievements of Sheffield United’s remarkable FA Cup run to the semi-final may have stolen the majority of headlines in the Steel City lately, their cross city neighbours, Wednesday, have been going about their business rather purposefully of late, rattling off four wins in their last six league outings. Fresh from resounding victories over Birmingham City and Queens Park Rangers, the Owls travel to local rivals Doncaster Rovers on Saturday in a fixture where a win would all but secure their Championship status for another season, as they push for a top ten finish for the first time in seven years. Manager Stuart Gray (right) said: "I've always said the incentive is to chip away at teams above and finish as high as possible. I know we are taking an unbelievable following to Doncaster and I am very grateful to the fans for that. The challenge for the players is to put on a performance for the supporters and continue on this winning run.” Gray’s opposite nu...

Sheffield United 1-0 Carlisle United Sky Bet League 1 Bramall Lane Attendance: 15,437 Hopes of a Wembley double are still very much alive for Nigel Clough whose side recorded a routine win against Carlisle United in what has been a far from routine season so far for Sheffield United. Clough (right) , who saw his side book a date in the FA Cup semi-final with victory over Charlton Athletic at the weekend, allowed himself the luxury of dreaming of an unlikely play-off spot just months on from relegation fears. “The top five have probably gone away a little bit but that sixth spot is still up for grabs,” he said optimistically. The Blades, who celebrate their 125 th anniversary this season, have now recorded ten consecutive wins in all competitions and saw this one out thanks to Jose Baxter’s 28 th minute strike. “I’m incredibly proud of what the players have achieved. You almost run out of superlatives as to what they have done,” added Clough. “Some of them were dead o...

The method of Stuart Broad’s dismissal courtesy of West Indian wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin was more a case of ‘limped out’ than the ‘run out’ recorded in the scorebooks, as England suffered a 27 run defeat in the first of the three match Twenty20 series in Barbados yesterday. The England captain’s exit not only typified his side’s performance but arguably the winter of discontent suffered by English cricket which can’t be forgotten soon enough. Nursing a long-term knee injury for which he has regular painkilling injections, Broad ‘tweeted’: “The workload over the winter has got it to a point it needs treatment. 7 days should be fine.” With the defence of their World T20 crown in Bangladesh on the horizon, questions must be asked about the frequency of matches that their premier all-rounder, and arguably best bowler, is participating in. The fact that Broad has played five Ashes tests, six ODI matches and four T20 internationals since late November must speak for its...

Second Ashes Test Review Australia beat England by 218 runs. When Australia wrapped up the second Ashes test in Adelaide by securing England’s four remaining wickets within an hour of play on day five, it all seemed too easy for the hosts. It has been a breeze for Darren Lehmann’s side so far as they sit just one win away from reclaiming the coveted urn.  The head coach replaced the unpopular Mickey Arthur just 18 days before Australia began their campaign in England and, though his side lost 3-0; ‘Boof’ provided the down to earth and old school mantra which made the Baggy Greens competitive. Just six months down the line and it’s the English who are “facing a whitewash” according to former skipper Michael Vaughan who labelled the current crop’s attempts as “feeble”. From day one in Brisbane to day four in Adelaide, he wasn’t wrong. The tourists have been battered and bruised and look completely broken. Lehmann’s philosophy, opposed to Andy Flower’s scie...