Preview: Southend V Doncaster Rovers

THE BLUES

That league table is looking much more appealing than it was two weeks ago but it's the 10 match rule here before a table is printed and I see no reason for change. That win at Oldham was nice though and those lovely people at the FA have made it even better by overturning the ridiculous red card handed out by Mr. Kettle who surely must see a trip to Northwich Victoria's next game as his reward.

This makes the preview much easier. Now there's a vacancy for 'The Special One' I expect Tilly to put his hat in the ring and a good start would be announcing an unchanged side that started v the Latics bar MacDonald for Harrold. There easy.

What more do you want me to say? Collis and Richards must stay until injury, a real suspension or a spectacular loss of form intervenes. Bailey is now ahead of Captain Kev if Tilly ever decides to change the balance of midfield, while Mac's hat-trick in the reserves demands he gets a go with Big Leon upfront. As ever with T&B would not be surprised if they stick with the Prince but honestly, and yes he has played better over the last two weeks, his overall game is just not good enough and I'm not sure there's a lot more there. A battering ram off the bench with 10 minutes left maybe, but 10-15 goals in a season, never. I can see us getting that from MacDonald.

THE OPPOSITION

Doncaster find themselves in a midtable position in seven points. While some supporters are unhappy with ex-Bournemouth manager Sean O'Driscoll, only 4 wins in the last 21 games, he had this to say about the Blues after coming away impressed with what he'd seen at Boundary Park.

"They are an ex-Championship side and have some quality players," he said. "They won away from home and despite going down to ten men just before the break, they were quite comfortable. They went up to the Championship the season before last, which is a big jump, but they have come back down and the players look more comfortable at this level. They are going to be hard to beat and I definitely think that they will be one of the teams up there at the end of the season."

Fears during the game that Ritchie Wellens, the Supporters' Club player of the month for August, could be a doubt for the trip to Roots Hall after suffering a knock to his foot in Sunday's win over Crewe, have been allayed and he has trained for the last two days. Midfielder Brian Stock has been "nursed" so far this week after suffering some reaction to the game.

"We brought Stocky back early from his hernia operation and the groin area swells up for a couple of days after games," said O'Driscoll.
"It is getting better but because we are playing him it is just going to take a bit longer. He should be okay for Saturday."
James Coppinger, an unused substitute on Sunday, is again unlikely to feature in the starting line-up at Roots Hall after suffering some reaction in training.

The team that finished in their last game, a 2-0 home win v Crewe was; Sullivan, O'Connor, Lockwood, Mills, Gareth Roberts, Wellens (Green 75), Stock, Wilson, Guy (McDaid 76), Hayter, Heffernan (Price 85). Subs Not Used: Greer, Coppinger. Goals: Heffernan 31, Woodards 48 og.

Finally some after match comments from that game with goal scorer Paul Heffernan and forward Lewis Guy mentioned in dispatches.

Rovers' first home win in the league saw them climb out of the bottom four and up to 14th place - just two points off a play-off spot.

"Crewe are confident in what they do and they don't panic and in a sense they are a difficult team to play against," said Rovers boss Sean O'Driscoll. "But we did our homework and we'd worked well in training and it was nice to end like that."

Rovers were dominant throughout but had to wait until the 31st minute to open their account through striker Paul Heffernan's first league goal. Some fans have been critical of last season's top scorer, but he retains O'Driscoll's support.

"Paul contributed so much against Bradford City in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy game without getting on the scoresheet but he was always a threat," said O'Driscoll. "It was nice for him to score and it was also nice to see Jason Price back as well. It has been such a long way back and he is still a bit rusty and I think that you could see that when he came on. He is still not quite ready to start but he gives us another option and he is almost a bit of a lucky talisman for us and hopefully that will continue this season. It was another step on the road and it will have whetted his appetite and now he has obviously got to get back to the training pitch this week and continue to work hard."

Though keen to have Price fully match fit as quickly as possible, O'Driscoll is fortunate in having enough quality in his squad to avoid rushing him back too soon.

Lewis Guy was promoted to the starting line-up and produced a performance which will make it difficult for O'Driscoll to leave him out against Southend at Roots Hall this weekend.

"Lewis is bright and makes great runs and people don't always appreciate what he does," argued the Doncaster boss. "When you are playing against blanket defences you need people who can make the runs before you can make a pass. Lewis is prepared to make the runs and has done that ever since he's been here and we've been telling him to keep doing that. Lewis popped up all over the field today but when we play with a front four the players can inter-change. That is the beauty of the system.

"We were well beaten," admitted Crewe's technical director Dario Gradi. "We were out-passed and their keeper hardly had a save to make."

THE MATCHES

Many will have mixed feelings about playing Doncaster, an embarrassing home 0-1 cup defeat when they were a non league club in 1998 and the 0-2 away defeat which ended our eight match winning streak two seasons ago spring to mind. However it's not a bad record; 27 games in total, 12 wins, 11 defeats and 4 draws. A result looks on the cards then!

We first played Rovers on October 4 1958 when we won 5-0 at home with those legends Hollis (2), Thompson (2) and McCrory all getting on the scoresheet. We've scored four on a couple of occasions. Easter Monday 1978 saw a 4-0 win, Moody surprisingly grabbing two, one a penalty, Morris and Yates the others. While on a cold Friday night on the 11^th of December Super Roy McDonough scored twice along with Crown and Hall in a 4-1 win, both at Roots Hall. During the 1971/72 season we did the double over Donny winning 2-1 away and 2-1 at home. The two Bills, Garner and Best got the goals in both matches. Not a lot of people know that. (Well they do on the SUFC Database where I borrowed all this, pats on back boys for an excellent site, appreciated.)

Have to spoil it all by mentioning the last match against them when they completed their own double with a one goal win in front of 10,397 mostly Blue supporters expecting to see the march to the championship completed a touch earlier than it actually was!

THE HISTORY

The club was formed in September 1879 by Albert Jenkins, a fitter at Doncaster's Great Northern Railway works in response to the emerging popularity of the game in the nearby city of Sheffield. In 1938 the capacity of Belle Vue was increased to 40,000 and it was in 1948 that the stadium recorded its highest attendance of 37,099 against Hull City, although apocryphal accounts refute this and claim that many more gained entry to the ground by climbing over walls and thus avoided having to pay.

They hold the record for the most wins in a league season (42 in 1946-47). In 1997-98, Doncaster also set the record for losses in a season, suffering the humiliation of enduring a record 34 league defeats as they finished bottom of Division Three and went into the Football Conference. Just after this relegation, chairman Ken Richardson was sent to prison after he tried to set fire to the Belle Vue ground in hope of being able to pay off the club's debts with the insurance money. They returned to the league five years later as Conference playoff winners, and were Division Three champions the following season. The 2006-07 season is the club's third successive season in League One.

Doncaster is the only team to win the Fourth Division/Third Division (fourth level) championship more than twice (three times in 1966, 1969, and 2004). These changes in League names led to a complication however, when Rovers tried to retain ownership of the actual Third Division trophy. Football League rules state that any team who wins a trophy 3 times can keep it. The Football League however, claimed that the Rovers could not keep the trophy because the name had changed and in theory, Rovers had not won that particular league 3 times. The titles won in 1966 and 1969 were in fact Fourth division (albeit the same in all but name).

Doncaster were the last team to win the Third division before it's name changed to League 2 the following season.

In 2005-06, Doncaster beat two Premiership teams in the League Cup - Manchester City and Aston Villa. They reached the quarter finals of the competition where they were knocked out by Arsenal on penalties.

Harry Gregg kept goal for Doncaster in the 1950s, and was sold to Manchester United in December 1957 for £23,500. At the time, he was the most expensive goalkeeper in the world. He went on to help save lives in the Munich air disaster and was a regular goalkeeper for Northern Ireland.

The late Billy Bremner, who achieved fame for his playing career with Leeds United and Scotland, managed Doncaster twice, his final spell ending in November 1991 - six years before his death.

Doncaster Rovers were involved in the longest ever football match, against Stockport County at Edgeley Park on March 30, 1946. The match was the second in a Division Three (North) two-legged cup tie and, after 30 minutes of extra time, was deadlocked at 2-2 (also the score in the first leg). After the referee had sought advice from the authorities, it was decided that the game would carry on until one team scored. However, after 203 minutes, and with darkness closing in, the game was finally stopped. The replay, at Doncaster, was won by Rovers 4 - 0. Stories abound of fans leaving the game, going home for their tea, and coming back to watch the end of the game.

After difficult times for the club in the 1980s and 1990s they have recently found their best form for arguably the past 50 years. Successive promotions in 2002/2003 and 2003/2004 under the helm of manager Dave Penney has returned them to the Coca Cola League I. Penney left in August 2006 and was replaced with former AFC Bournemouth manager Sean O'Driscoll. The club has few financial worries due to owner John Ryan's commitment to invest heavily into the club. A new stadium was completed in December 2006 and their first game at their new Keepmoat Stadium was against Huddersfield Town F.C. on New Year's Day, 2007. The first goal scored at the Keepmoat Stadium was by Mark McCammon.

The team's mascot, portrayed by Andrew Liney, is a brown dog known as Donny Dog that wears a red and white Rovers jersey. Before a scheduled appearance during the game against Huddersfield Town at the Galpharm Stadium on 12 September 2006, police prevented Liney from entering the stadium in costume, citing unspecified "police intelligence", and refused him permission to wear any part of the costume within 50 meters of the stadium.

(Thanks to the usual suspects in their help in creating this article)