Business as usual as veteran Wood attempts to help Rovers finish job started back in February
DONCASTER ROVERS face Crewe Alexandra less than eight weeks after beating them 2-0 on their unstoppable march to the League Two play-offs – and on Friday they meet again to decide who will be going to Wembley.
As far as Rovers captain Richard Wood is concerned, it will not make the slightest bit of difference – not when his team-mates have got this far with a very blinkered approach.
Wood is as matter-of-fact as his manager, Grant McCann, a takeeach-game-as-it-comes merchant if ever there was one.
Given that approach has taken the team into the play-offs on the back of a 12-match unbeaten run – two draws bookending an impressive sequence of wins the Railwaymen were part of – Wood sees no reason to change now.
"It won't affect anything," insisted Wood, a League One play-off winner with Rotherham United in 201718. "It's a play-off . We've just got to concentrate on ourselves. We'll do our homework on what they do but we'll concentrate on what we do and do what we've done to get us this far.
"All that matters is who performs best over the two legs and wins – it's irrelevant what's happened before.
"There's no point looking into how we played there, how we did or what they did, we just have to look forward to what's going to happen.
"AllIandeveryplayerwantstodo is win and it's just about being focused, concentrated, making sure you do everything to prepare right and enjoy it. That's my message to my players: enjoy the moment and just make sure we perform on the day.
"We have to be fully concentrated and have no regrets about our preparation.
"The way I see it, I just see all four teamshaveanequalchanceofgetting through.
"We're confident and we're in a good place at the minute."
It would have been easy to get carried away by a remarkable run which took Rovers from 22nd in the 24-team division at the start of February to fifth at the end of April. or at least it would be without McCann preaching his "next game" mentality.
"He keeps saying it all the time and that's why he's been very good," says Wood. "What he says in the media reflects what he says to us and
I think it's rubbed off well and kept our focus.
"It's taking each game as it comes and if he gets rumbles of people being carried away he'll make sure he sorts us out and gets our feet firmly on the ground.
"It's been really good how he's managed it all.
"The gaffer's done really well with that because his message has never changed. When results weren't coming and we had injury problems it was always the same to us as players and what he wanted from us and it's only just started to click, all at the same time."
Also important has been a squad ethic which has impressed Wood.
"It isn't just an XI and I haven't been at a football club which is just about 11 players, it's all about the squad. You're only as good as your squad is so for the lads to come off thebenchorintotheXIanddowell, it says a lot," he comments.
"To achieve what we want to takes a squad.
"When Tom Anderson’s been out Joe (Olowu)'s come in and done unbelievably. He's unfortunate not to be in the team.
"Rowey (Tommy Rowe) came on and was unbelievable at Morecambe when Biggo (Harrison Biggins) went off injured. He scored and that just sums up where we are as a squad, We're all sticking together and everyone's buying into what we're doing."