Championship Preview – Doncaster

Posted on | July 29, 2010 | No Comments

When they entered the Championship a few years ago some scoffed at them, claiming that it wouldn’t be long before this so called smaller club would be back in the lower divisions. However, under Sean O’Driscoll they have flourished. They’ve become a side who despite a poor budget, play football the right way and are improving year-on-year. O’Driscoll’s success has meant that he’s never been short of suitors and last season saw Burnley come knocking at the door. However, the former Bournemouth manager showed his loyalty and opted to stay with Rovers, which shows how stable the club is and how seemingly, the only way is up.

Nobody has ever doubted Sean O’Driscoll’s credentials, yet nobody was quite sure how Doncaster would size up in last seasons Championship. The club were forced to offload two of their best players in Matt Mills and Brian Stock and with no big signings coming in, this meant that Donny fans were a little concerned at how the season would turn out. As it happened, there was absolutely no need to carry worry as Rovers enjoyed their best season for years and finished in 12^th position. At one point there was even talk of the playoffs although after finishing on sixty points, ten away from 6^th place, that was probably a little too optimistic. Yet still, a mid-table finish was a superb result for a team who had barely spent a penny in the transfer market. Instead, O’Driscoll opted to utilize the loan market and brought in the likes of Billy Sharp, Jason Shackell, Elliott Ward and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas who really gave Rovers a lift in the second half of the season. Sharp in particular was a real steel at the time, with the striker arriving from Sheffield United last September and bagging fifteen goals before returning to his parent club in June.

That superb return from Sharp has nudged the Doncaster directors into putting their hands into their pockets. The club confirmed a few weeks ago that Sharp would sign permanently for £1.15m, a club record transfer fee. For a club such as Doncaster the signing is huge and was only made possible through the generosity of the directors. While most of their budget has been spent on Sharp, Sean O’Driscoll has also managed to bring in two other players. Both George Friend and Simon Gillett have arrived on free transfers and with both possessing solid Championship experience, they should both fit into Doncaster nicely. Gillett of course has already experienced life at the Keepmoat Stadium outfit, having spent time on loan last season. You would have to imagine that considering the large amount of money spent on Sharp, O’Driscoll will surely be looking to considerably use the loan market once again this season.

While most teams in the division have played a few official pre-season warm up games, Doncaster have spent most of their time on a tour in the South West. There they’ve played a number of non-league teams although after discovering that only three substitutes could be used per game, Sean O’Driscoll is thought to be unhappy after wanting to use an extended rotation policy. Other than the tour, Rovers have managed to play one other game which saw them take on newly-promoted West Brom. O’Driscoll’s men managed a 1-0 home victory, a score that puts them in excellent shape with around a week before the new season begins.

As we said earlier on, Doncaster are never going to be labelled as promotion contenders and odds that fritter between 10/1 and 20/1 highlight this. Then again, with an average price of 5/1 for relegation, the bookies seem to be hinting that another mid-table finish beckons for Sean O’Driscoll’s side. We probably agree with the bookmakers although if Doncaster can really push on, they may have an outside chance of a play off finish. They haven’t lost any players during the summer and as they saw in the last campaign, Billy Sharp is obviously the goalscoring striker they’ve been crying out for the last few years. If they can net a few loan players we really think they can try for the top six, but if not we’re sure their supporters will be more than happy with another mid-table or top half finish.

Related posts:

1. Championship Preview: Doncaster
2. Blackpool v Doncaster Preview
3. Doncaster v Newcastle Preview
4. Doncaster v West Ham Preview
5. Doncaster v Swansea Preview

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