Solid Pompey offer hope for Doncaster’s wish to prosper
DONCASTER ROVERS manager Darren Ferguson points to tonight’s visitors, Portsmouth, as proof that a couple of positive results can send a team shooting up the League One table.
The two clubs were promoted together last May with Pompey snatching the championship on a dramatic final afternoon.
Both took time to settle this time around but three wins from their last four games have helped propel Kenny Jackett’s men up to eighth place.
Rovers, in contrast, sit 18th and are only outside the relegation zone on goal difference after losing six of their last eight games.
Ahead of taking on a side Doncaster did the double over last season, Ferguson said: “Portsmouth look solid and don’t concede many goals.
“They were finding their feet at first this season but they have shown if you get a run going then you can shoot up the league. They are not far from the play-offs.”
Liam Mandeville is Rovers’ only fit striker tonight after Alfie May was ruled out for two months with a hernia problem that will be operated on tomorrow.
He joins Andy Williams in the treatment room, while John Marquis misses out on facing his former club – who he scored twice against last January at the Keepmoat in front of the live Sky cameras – through suspension.
James Coppinger, meanwhile, will undergo a fitness test on the calf problem that forced him out of the weekend defeat at Charlton Athletic after just eight minutes.
Despite the absentees, Ferguson expects a positive response to the weekend defeat at The Valley from his players.
“I felt Charlton were there for the taking but the players were hurting,” he added. WITH SEVEN victories from their last nine League One outings, Rotherham United have had no trouble in clocking up the points in recent weeks.
Now, though, comes the challenge of doing the same as the miles are also piling up with Paul Warne’s side set for two lengthy road trips in the coming four days.
After making the long trip to AFC Wimbledon tonight, the Millers will be heading out again at the weekend for a clash with Oxford United at the Kassam Stadium.
Two lengthy away assignments in such a short space of time brings plenty of logistical problems but assistant manager Richie Barker insists United can cope and keep their burgeoning promotion push on track.
“There is obviously a lot of travelling over the next four or five days for us,” he said ahead of taking on a Dons side fresh from beating Northampton Town at Sixfields.
“But we will prepare in exactly the same way and we will make sure the players are as physically and tactically prepared as they can be.
“We are expecting a tough one (tonight).
“It is a tight pitch and we are facing a team coming off the back of a positive result, so they will be buoyant”
The injury-hit Millers could be without four midfielders for the trip to Kingsmeadow with Darren Potter, Lee Frecklington and Jon Taylor possibly being joined on the sidelines by Ryan Williams, who has been nursing a sore ankle since the weekend victory over Scunthorpe.
Frecklington and Taylor are expected to be back for the weekend clash with Oxford.