Chance of maintaining home run drives Rovers
PROMOTION and more specifically silverware is not the sole raison d’etre for Doncaster Rovers between now and May.
In a renaissance campaign at the Keepmoat Stadium, accomplishments have arrived in plentiful supply and ensuring that one particular stand-out statistic remains intact come season’s end represents another huge motivation for Darren Ferguson.
Ensuring an instant return to League One and hopefully an addition to the trophy cabinet may top the list of priorities, but maintaining the club’s proud unbeaten home league sequence over the course of the season would provide the icing on the cake for the Rovers boss. His side have not seen their colours lowered in the league on home soil in almost 12 months since Blackpool triumphed 1-0 on March 28 last year, a grievous Easter Monday blow which banged another nail into Rovers’ relegation coffin.
Even the wildest optimist would not have expected Rovers to go unbeaten in 20 home league matches since that dreadful afternoon, more especially given the club’s lamentable Keepmoat form over several seasons – with conceding late goals being an unfortunate specialty.
For three seasons running – 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 – Rovers lost more home matches than they managed to win, providing further head-turning context to their form since last March.
Improved mental resolve, game management and ruthlessness in both boxes have all played their part in the stunning transformation which has seen Rovers’ class of 2016-17 turn the tide of recent history.
But Ferguson is demanding no let-up, certainly not now with his side on the cusp of going a whole calendar year without tasting a league defeat if they remain unbeaten in this month’s games against Cheltenham Town, Notts County and Plymouth.
He said: “I think over three, four or five years, home form had not been good for whatever reason.
“One of the clear things we had to do was change the home form because in this league in particular, a lot of teams would come here and think ‘well, this is a nice place, with a lovely, good pitch and stadium.’
“We had to turn it into a horrible place and that is what we have managed to do most of the time and our performances have been pretty good.”
On keeping their record intact over the course of a full season, he added: “It is a big motivation and I am really proud of that and if we can manage to go through a season unbeaten at home, then that goes a long way to getting us the success we hope to get.
“When you are down to six (home matches left), you can start actually using it and when I speak to them on Saturday, it is important we keep the run going. We don’t want to let it go now.
“But we will have to be on it on Saturday, playing against one of the form teams in the league (in Cheltenham).
“We have played very well at home, but unfortunately in the past few games, we haven’t got that first goal at home and that would help us.”
In a season when Ferguson has not had too much cause to bemoan his side’s lack of singlemindedness and ruthlessness, one deficiency has pockmarked a largely exemplary campaign in that respect – namely, Rovers’ inability to convert penalties. It is starting to grate.
Even accounting for a run of just one win in seven league matches, the club’s position at the top of the table is still a pretty one, although as Ferguson cedes, it could be a fair bit better if it was not for their Achilles heel – missing spot-kicks.
John Marquis’s weekend miss in the 0-0 draw at Crawley was Rovers’ sixth unsuccessful penalty this term, with Tommy Rowe, Andy Williams and Liam Mandeville having previously proved wayward with their aim.
Ferguson, aware that any further misses could prove seriously costly at the season’s business end, has confirmed that a new designated penalty-taker has now been chosen for the rest of the season in his quest to firmly resolve matters.
Pulling no punches, Ferguson added: “It has got to the stage now where we need to sort it out.
“I look at the qualities of the penalties and they have been poor. You should not be missing from 12 yards; maybe once or twice in a season, but not six.
“As we are so attacking, it does not surprise me we have had so many penalties. We should have had more, actually.
“If you look at the games we have missed them in, you could actually be sitting here saying more or less that the job is done. I think it has cost us about eight points and it is really important.”
Ferguson confirmed that young striker Mandeville, who has made just one appearance so far in 2017 due to injury, will be involved at the weekend, while utility man Luke McCullough is pencilled in for 45 minutes in a reserve game on March 22 as he continues to step up his comeback plans following a long-term cruciate injury.
We had to turn the Keepmoat into a horrible place – we have done that. Doncaster Rovers’ boss Darren Ferguson on his side’s improved home form.