BAILEY’S LIVING DONNY DREAM
NEWCASTLE UNITED cast-off Owen Bailey is riding a magic carpet at Doncaster as English football’s in-form side attempt to close out a League Two play-off spot today.
Bailey’s world fell apart when he was released by the Magpies four years ago after sustaining a career-threatening knee injury which kept him out of the game for 17 months.
But after rehabilitating himself in non-league at Gateshead, the 25-yearold’s summer move to Donny has given him a central part in League Two’s story of the season.
After failing to win any of their first seven games and sitting as low as 22nd in January, Rovers have gone on a charge which has left them needing just a draw at Gillingham to be certain of a play-off position.
Rovers, though, no longer deal in any other currencies than wins. An 11th successive victory at Priestfield Stadium will break a club record dating back to 1946/47.
“People come up to you saying ‘Good luck, keep the run going lads’,” said the ever-present Bailey (top). “But I think as a player you’ve just got to sort of thank them and then just get back on it.
“I think everyone’s very much of the exact same sort of mindset that we’ve achieved nothing yet because ultimately we haven’t.
“We have won however many games but all we’ve done is give ourselves an opportunity to try to do what we set out to achieve in the first place.”
The midfielder admitted he felt like “banging his head against a wall” after their sorry start but the turnaround has been extraordinary. It coincided with manager Grant Mccann (circle, above) sticking up a league table, starting from scratch, at the end of January in the canteen.
“I think it was around the time of the Sutton game when there was talk of relegation and it being a six-pointer,” said Bailey. “The message from us was always, ‘We’re not even looking at that’. It was always about how we can climb the table.
“People probably laughed at it and thought it was stupid then but you look now and obviously I don’t think many people would have probably predicted we would go on to win this many games in a row but as a group what we knew we were capable of.
“In January we recruited really well but also just as a team I think everything sort of finally came together. The runs and passes and movements that we were making earlier in the season weren’t quite in sync but now they seem to be and everyone’s singing off the same hymn sheet.”