The King is Dead...Long Live the King

At what was to be Sean O'Driscoll's last game in charge of Doncaster Rovers, the Rovers faithfull sang a couple of choruses of "Sean O'Driscoll's Barmy Army".  There was no booing the chant nor was I aware of much dissent towards the Rovers manager while I watched the match.  It was a positive reaction considering Rovers were playing what would be their 19th game without a win.  I am not sure many other managers would still have fans singing his praises after such a run.

Sean O'Driscoll has quite simply been the best manager Doncaster Rovers have ever had. His only challenger for this crown is Peter Docherty, who managed the team back in the 50s, way before my time.  I would argue that yes, Docherty may have been more successful in keeping Rovers in the second flight for longer and attaining a higher finishing position than O'Driscoll ever did, but these were vastly different times.

In those days, footballer's wages were capped and so Donny actually paid their players "Top-Dollar".  Today, O'Driscoll maintained very respectable league positions for two seasons on a wage budget that was around half of the average wage budget of our competitors.  Some teams were paying their players four-times the amount Rovers budgeted.

So hearing that there were stories on Twitter that he and his assistant, Richard O'Kelly had been put on gardening leave was a shock to say the least.  I checked the official site and found the following statement:

“It is with regret that the shareholders of Doncaster Rovers FC have taken the decision based on the long run of poor results, that Sean O’Driscoll and Richard O’Kelly have been relinquished of their duties. They felt that action needed to be taken to address the current position. They would like to thank Sean and Richard for all their work during the five years at the club including winning at the Millennium Stadium and Wembley. Dean Saunders will take charge of the game on Saturday against Crystal Palace.”

Strange, as only 24 hours earlier, John Ryan was backing his man.  I know the Vote of Confidence can reduce a managers life-expectancy to that of an ant in an aardwark colony but this U-Turn was massively quick by even football's whacky standards.

The first thing I am going to do on this blog is to pay tribute to Sean and Richard.  The club have been sadly remiss in doing this but between myself and Viva Rovers, we'll redress this balance a little.

Dave Penney - Huge Boots to Fill

Sean and Richard had huge boots to fill when they came to the club.  Dave Penney and Micky Walker had achieved consecutive promotions from the Conference to League 1; they had given Rovers a League Cup adventure to dream of by battling past Man City; outclassing Aston Villa before losing out on a semi-final place to a very lucky Arsenal.  Penney was successful and he was also Doncaster through and through.  

Ryan's decision to sack Penney was a bigger surprise than the decision to remove O'Driscoll from his position last week, although the decision did make sense to me.  

Rovers were enduring their second poor start to a league campaign and in September, it looked like John Ryan's dream of returning Rovers to the second-flight of English football would have to wait another season.  

Ryan acted.  Penney was dismissed and he targetted one man but was clever enough to set up a distraction for the Press in the form of Doncaster legend Kevin Keegan.  While the press speculated about King Kevin's return to football with little old Donny, Sean O'Driscoll was approached and agreed to end a 23 year-old association with Bournemouth as a player and a manager to come up North.

In replacing the popular Dave Penney, a spectacular start would have been handy, but Sean did not get it.  Five draws, including three consecutive 0-0s and 2 defeats were to come before the new management team bagged that first win, away to Cheltenham Town.  The fans were uneasy.  

But they needn't have been as within the next two years, Doncaster Rovers had experienced two of the biggest days in their history in playing and winning first at the Millenium Stadium to gain their first ever national trophy, and then at Wembley (another first) for a fairytale promotion to the championship where we have remained ever since.

James Hayter celebrating THAT goal

I made up my mind that the partnership of O'Driscoll and O'Kelly was good for the Rovers after they had been in their jobs for one year.  There seemed an irrefutable logic about all their big decisions:  the signing of Brian Stock and Mark Wilson to strengthen the midfield; the hapless Jan Budtz being replaced first by John Filan and then permanently by Neil Sullivan; strengthening the attack first with the loan of players like Forte and Cademateri before permenantly signing James Hayter.  Plus, Rovers had won something.

In spite of the clear logic and the silverware, there were still those who remained stubbornly unconvinced.  A straw-poll on BBC 606 voted 11/2 that the partnership should be fired in September 2007.  Unbelieveable and proven wrong over the next season.

The end of the 2007/2008 season showed me that the SOD / ROK alliance was not just good for Rovers, it was bloody brilliant.  What must have been a tremendous piece of motivational skill lifted Rovers from being a team that had missed out on automatic promotion to being a team that took the play-offs by the scruff of the neck and triumphed.  For me, the performance Rovers put in against Southend in the second-leg of the semi-final was the best exhibition of football I had ever seen from the Rovers.  Better even than the destruction of Aston Villa under Dave Penney, it was almost a shame that it couldn't have occurred against more illustrious opposition and grab even more headlines.  In the stands sat our play-off final opponents.  What must they have felt about the task that now lay before them?

Another piece of fantastic player motivation occurred in our first season in the championship.  The team was playing consistently well but was lacking a goalscorer and so were losing by single goals.  After lying at the bottom of the division at Christmas, Rovers found their goals and had the third best form of any team in the division between January and May that season. Still the doubters criticized Sean for not turning to Paul Heffernan sooner for his goals and they prefered (and still prefer) to give Heffs the credit for this achievement rather than O'Driscoll.

 

I have no problem with giving Heffernan credit for the goals but I will give Sean O'Driscoll double the credit for turning to Heffernan at the right time; for sticking to the football principles that until December had not brought enough points and for motivating the players to get them playing the third best football in the league.  That's the third best football in results terms and not subjectively assessed performance terms.

The next season consistently brought the best of Rovers' football.  On their meagre budget and in front of their comparitavely tiny crowds, Rovers never remotely looked like taking the drop that they are always favourite to take and even gave fans a brief smell of a play-off appearance.  Unfortunately, injuries prevented this and we were not able to win our Easter fixtures.  Had we done so we would probably have pipped Blackpool to that 6th placed finish.

In 2010/11, Rovers made an encouraging start.  The only issue was the defence, which would have surely been a lot better were it not for an 11th hour offer from Barnsley for Jason Shackell described by John Ryan as "nothing short of extraordinary".  

Even so, Rovers came into 2011 sitting pretty in 14th place, just 4 points off the top 6.  They had also made a signing that at the time, I thought had allowed us to continue to be genuine contenders for a play-off place.  Matthew Kilgallon signed until the end of the season.

Unfortuantely, Kilgallon turned out to be a poor signing to say the least and an injury crisis that was developing became one of mammoth proportions.  So started the slump that would ultimately end O'Driscoll and O'Kelly's tenures.

Some have dismissed this crisis stating that all clubs have injuries so I'll quote a stat I have previously quoted on Ja606.

In 2011, Rovers had between 6 and 16 of their 31 man squad out at any one time.  The average was 11.  Compare if you will with the current stats in the premier league.  You will see that Man Utd. currently sit at the top of the table with 9 injuries, most of which are short-term.  Only two of the premier league clubs have more injuries than are best situation so far this season.

O'Driscoll's football also does not lend itself to being learnt quickly.  He wants players to evolve and learn to make the correct decisions.  For me there is no doubt at all that this should result in better footballers.  But by introducing 9 new players over the summer, to cover injuries and players allowed to leave, a problem arises.  If the new players do not thrive quickly within O'Driscoll's philosophies, the team will struggle and that is exactly what has happened.  O'Driscoll recognised this, admitting that relegation was a possibility at the start of the season and stating that sometimes you hve to go backwards to move forwards.  

It was a typically honest quote and one I am sure the board at Doncaster Rovers would have hated, especially with a chairman who even now talks about play-offs.

Should O'Driscoll have been fired? Looking at it from the outside, and despite our poor run, I would say no.  The injuries and new personnel more than explain the terrible results.  There is also plenty of time to get out of the situation we in which we find ourselves, as Sean has in the past. 

When would I have looked to dismiss the manager?  After relegation I would set a target of immediate return to the championship.  If it became clear that Rovers were not going to achieve this under Sean O'Driscoll, then he would go. 

Thing is though, that is my opinion looking from the outside.  I do not know what has been said in board meetings; I do not know about O'Driscoll's relationships with the powers that be at the Rovers. There are plenty of things that could have happened behind closed doors that would make the decision correct or the manager's position untennable.  I suspect one of these things has happened.

In any case.  Thank you Sean for the great years you've given us.

On to Dean Saunders.  Well, he's always struck me as a nice guy with a great sense of humour.  You have to worry about his experience but I am right behind him.  Like I did with Sean, I will reserve judgement on what he can bring the Rovers until he's had some time in the job.  Lets hope it is further success in the championship.