Rowe is shaping up his bid for a new contract
DANNY Rowe played like a man in search of a contract against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday – as well he might.
The 29-year-old midfielder is on a short-term deal until the end of the season with Burton Albion and looking to kickstart his career after a frustrating period.
On Saturday, handed his first start for a month, he buzzed around keenly and effectively, taking people on, getting in crosses and, in the absence of both Joe Powell and Jonny Smith, taking most of the free kicks and corners.
Had it not been for a good performance by Plymouth goalkeeper Michael Cooper, Rowe might have clocked up two assists in the first half.
It was a performance Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink enjoyed and the manager appears to think getting hold of a fit Rowe could be a coup for Burton.
When Rowe signed, Hasselbaink said: “He will give us pace, directness and, hopefully, goals and assists. He is a goal threat and we need more of that and, hopefully, we can get him going really quickly, as we know he is a very good player.
“He had a knee injury a while ago but that is fully behind him now. He wasn’t attached to a club but he’s getting in love with football again and we want to help him get back to his best.”
After Saturday’s game, Hasselbaink said: “I thought Danny gave us something totally different. We have been waiting for that. He’s getting fitter and fitter.
“We have to watch out with his hamstrings and stuff because he’s an explosive one but he gave us a different edge.”
It would perhaps be fair to say that, so far, Rowe’s career has promised less than it has delivered.
He started out with Stockport County in 2009. They were in League One at the time and his debut was against Leeds United. How times change in football.
But over the next two seasons, Stockport were relegated twice, out of the Football League, and the unfortunate Rowe added a third relegation, from the Conference, in the 2012-13 season after moving on to Barrow.
He moved on to Macclesfield Town, then in the Conference, and had two spells with them, punctuated by spending some time out of the game.
The two spells totalled 110 games with 12 goals and it was said that Derby County were among the teams keeping a close eye on him in the 2015-16 campaign.
However, it was Ipswich Town who came in for him in January 2017.
Over three years, though, he played only 29 games for the Tractor Boys and had two separate loan spells with Lincoln City.
After the second spell, he broke into the Ipswich team regularly last season, making 18 appearances, the first being their 1-0 win against Burton Albion on the opening day.
That was when fate took a hand and a knee injury in December ruled him out for five months.
Covid-19 ended the season before he was back and, in the summer, Ipswich chose not to exercise an option to extend his contract.
It was an unlucky state of affairs for Rowe and he had to get back to some semblance of match fitness initially with Burton.
Hasselbaink was keen to get him involved, though, and he was brought on in the 88th minute of the 2-0 win away to Northampton Town on the day his signing had been announced.
Even in those few minutes, he put himself about and would have been available for a tap-in had Ryan Edwards not completed a solo run in stoppage time by scoring himself.
Kieran Wallace’s cruciate ligament injury after 38 minutes of the away game against Charlton Athletic on February 23 gave Rowe a longer chance to impress from the bench and, to all intents and purposes, he scored the winner with a shot from 25 yards, even if it remains officially credited to Ben Watson, who deflected the shot.
Rowe started the next three