When Sean Oai??i??Driscoll was shown the door in September, no one could see what was around the corner for Doncaster Rovers. Dean Saunders was immediately given the vacant job and went on to gain seven points from his first five games, giving Rovers their first significant points of the season. When Saunders was given the job, the South Yorkshire side were bottom of the league with only one point.
As not much has changed regarding the league position, you would be forgiven for thinking that little has changed in Doncaster but you would be extremely wrong.
As the season is reaching its end, it is make or break for clubs around the bottom of the Championship and time to assess whether the experiment has worked so far and whether it is showing any signs of making an impact.
Up to now, McKay and Saunders have introduced fifteen players to the squad, each on a short term or loan basis. Some of the new players have made a positive impact, such as El-Hadji Diouf and Marc Antoine FortunAi?? whereas others havenai??i??t featured enough, or at all, such as Herold Goulon and Lamine Diatta to make any impact.
Since joining, El-Hadji Diouf has made fifteen appearances and scored five goals as well as assisting many more including Billy Sharpai??i??s ai???goal from heavenai??i??. His presence in the side has helped influence others who were there before and many who have joined more recently. The former Senegalese international has also taken the captainai??i??s armband in the absence of Brian Stock and seems to take his position seriously, contrary to his reputation at previous clubs. Marc Antoine FortunAi?? forged an impressive partnership with Billy Sharp for Rovers in late 2011, again making an impact on the side and has been made a first team regular at West Brom since his return.
One thing that has worried many fans is the fact that despite not needing any more players, the club seemed to bring in more players nevertheless. Lamine Diatta was signed in December but is yet to make an appearance. Damien Plessis signed on loan from Panathinaikos, also in December and is also yet to make an appearance. It seems players such as these were signed purely because the club could. The squad list is now up to thirty and with no reserve team, and many are sitting on the sidelines and may never feature for the club.
When the ai???experimentai??i?? first began, and Chimbonda, Ilunga and Diouf were brought in, Doncaster Rovers won their first away game of the campaign at Ipswich with Diouf scoring twice. The team also picked up several home wins but failed to leave the relegation zone. Since then, Rovers have picked up 22 points and moved to within touching distance of safety with two games in hand over many teams in the danger zone.
Looking at these statistics, it could be said that the experiment is working because of the improvement in form; however, the majority of the time it is the squad that were at the club previously that were scoring the vital goals. This is obviously helped with the addition of the likes of Diouf.
Doncaster Rovers didnai??i??t have a bad end to 2011, picking up wins over high flying Southampton and Leicester City although they lost the other three games. Six points from a possible fifteen is not bad form compared to previous months and moved the club to within five points of safety. Rovers then beat Barnsley in the New Year with a 2-0 home win but failed to win again until March 6th away to Nottingham Forest and with a fantastic draw away at West Ham, the clubai??i??s fortunes may finally be turning around. With the outstanding games coming up, this is Doncaster’s chance to climb into the safe zone for the first time since October.
All in all, the experiment doesnai??i??t seem to be making any impact on the teamai??i??s performances and therefore, cannot be working anywhere near as well as anyone had hoped. There is no way of telling where the team would be where it currently is in the table if the experiment hadnai??i??t been set up and the only way to tell if the whole thing was a success will be whether Doncaster Rovers stay up or not at the end of the season.
Everyone has their own opinion and may not agree with the goings on but the disagreements need to be put aside to support Doncaster Rovers whatever happens. Safety is the ultimate goal. The means to it don’t matter right now.
—-
Written by guest author Lewis Ward
Follow Lewis on twitterAi??@lewisward20Ai??and on his blogAi??http://vikingsbloggen.wordpress.com
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