by The Rovers Review

No home league wins this season means Rovers have endured a frustrating return to league one which leaves them eighteenth, ten games in.

Rovers are becoming renowned for their miss-fortunes on the injury front, but as things begin to look up with Mathieu Baudry on the road to recovery and Luke McCullough not far behind him after picking up a knock in his thigh, Rovers will now be without their fourth-choice striker in Andy Williams as he picked up an injury on Tuesday night vs Sunderlands U21s.

Ian Lawlor endured a late injury against Scunthorpe a few weeks ago, resulting in Marko Marosi making a return to the team ever since, but Darren Ferguson confirms Lawlor has now recovered and will be available for selection this Saturday.

With no wins at home so far this season, Ferguson is calling for everyone’s belief, “We’ve just got to keep believing and I think in performances, we’re not too far off.”
He then followed up with the area where he thinks Rovers have failed, “We have to improve at the top end of the pitch for me, we’ve had too many blanks, there’s reasons for that: the final pass, shot, cross, finish – got to improve – that’s the area we worked on this week.”

Rovers go into this game with the joint-worst home record along with Plymouth and Oldham. Meanwhile, Southend's away form is rather inconsistent too, with them only picking up four points on the road so far.

Form-wise, Rovers are excellent against Southend, with no losses since 22nd September 2007 where Rovers narrowly lost 3-2. The last time United came to the Keepmoat it ended in goalless draw back in August 2015.