MAKING HIS MARQ
Doncaster forward John Marquis aims to shoot down the Eagles
DONCASTER striker John Marquis will face his boyhood club when Crystal Palace travel to the Keepmoat this afternoon. Well, one of them anyway!
“I’ve always had divided loyalties,” explains the 26-year-old Londoner. “I grew up in Lewisham, really close to where Millwall trained.
“They were the club I followed, but Crystal Palace was just around the corner and I used to go to their games as well.
“Basically, my dad passed away when I was young and I didn’t have anyone to take me to football.
“I’d go with any of my friends’ parents who would take me, and my two best mates at the time supported Millwall and Palace. They were the games I got taken to so I grew up watching both.
“It was the era of Andy Johnson, Julian Gray, Wayne Routledge, Jobi McAnuff. I can reel off whole teams from those days. Aki Riihilahti, Tony Popovic, Gabor Kiraly, the keeper with the grey tracksuit bottoms. (Julian) Speroni was there. It was a big part of my childhood.
Watching
“Funnily enough, my sister lives in Crystal Palace at the moment so she’s sort of adopted them as her second side as well.
“She’ll be watching it on the box and I’m sure she’ll have a few of her friends round. She’ll be happy either way - but I’m sure she’d rather see Donny get to a quarter-final.”
If Marquis can repeat the kind of lethal finishing that has yielded 22 goals in 38 games this campaign, that is a distinct possibility for a club currently sixth in League One.
The striker is in the form of his life, and seems certain to attract Championship interest after three seasons of net-rippling consistency.
Indeed, Doncaster repelled a series of bids for his services during the January window, including a sizeable offer from League One rivals Sunderland.
“Deadline day was manic,” he recalls. “There were bids going in, all sorts going on. But it was too late in the window for Doncaster to let me leave and they’d made it very clear that I wouldn’t be going no matter how much was offered.
“I had no problems with that, and a few days later I was leading the boys out at Portsmouth with a smile on my face.
“That stuff doesn’t bother me. I just stick it to the back of my mind and concentrate on football. If I’m told by Doncaster or my agent that something is going to happen, I’ll deal with it.
“Obviously I want to play as high as I can. I want to test myself in the Championship, hopefully next season - whether that’s here or somewhere else.
“I’ll only have a year left on my deal by the summer and the club may want to get some money in to rebuild. Who knows? I don’t make those decisions, but while I’m wearing a Doncaster Rovers shirt I’ll give everything for the cause.”
The frenzied interest in Marquis is a far cry from his formative days at Millwall, the club he joined as a schoolboy. A debutant at 17, he failed to repeat his goal-scoring heroics from the youth ranks and was sent on a sequence of short-term loans before being released in 2016. “I came out of academy football at 18 and I was a tall, gangly forward with barely a shred of muscle on me,” he says. “I wasn’t ready - that’s the truth. “I wanted to play and that’s why I went on so many loans. But it wasn’t the best. You’d go for a month at a time. Sit on a bench. I was living out of a suitcase, basically. It was a case of sticking some petrol in the car, chucking my bags in the boot and going to find a hotel.
Directions
“I went to Portsmouth, Northampton, Torquay. I’ve seen a lot of places around the UK, so if anybody needs directions or sightseeing tips then I’m your man!”
Marquis feels that what he needed as a teenager was the backing of a manager - something he has received in spades from both Grant McCann and his predecessor at the
Keepmoat, Darren Ferguson.
“You need to let strikers go through patches of bad form, especially when they’re young,” he says. “Even if you’re not scoring, you can work for the team. Then the manager keeps you in the side, that gives you confidence, one goes in off your backside and suddenly you go on a run of scoring six in a row. “You need that belief from the manager when the goals aren’t there. Luckily for me though, they’ve been flying in for two-and-a-half seasons now.” The clamour for Marquis will only intensify if he can help dispatch Palace in front of the TV cameras - and seal a quarterfinal berth for the first time in Doncaster’s 140against year history. “It’s an opportunity to cause an upset. To make a bit of history for Doncaster. To show what we can do against Premier League opposition. There’s a lot of things that stand out for the boys,” he adds. “But at the end of the day, it’s just a game of football and one we can win. Obviously we know that’s going to be difficult a Premier League side.
“But it’s going to be a sell-out at the Keepmoat. It’s going to be a great atmosphere. If they have an off day and we play at our best then anything can happen.
“Will they drop players? They’ve got Premier League survival to consider, but it’s also a great opportunity for them. A lot of big teams have gone out so for sides like Palace, the draw is wide open.
“Personally I hope they don’t. If we do beat them, I want to say we’ve beaten their strongest side. But whatever team they put out, we’ll try our best to beat them.”