No one else like me then?

[tommy toes]

Schofield inherited a lousy squad.
Nobody could have made a silk purse out of this lot, whatever tactics they used.
There will be a mass clear out at the end of the season.
So to be fair to Schofield, let him sign the players he wants with the extra investment and see how it goes.

[Canadian Rover]

Schofield inherited a lousy squad.
Nobody could have made a silk purse out of this lot, whatever tactics they used.
There will be a mass clear out at the end of the season.
So to be fair to Schofield, let him sign the players he wants with the extra investment and see how it goes.

No, no, no!! This is a terrible idea. Keep Dull Danny/Sleepy Schofield and our attendances are going to plummet. Club shop sales drop, sponsorship money vanish and forget the " catering income" the whole concept of Club Doncaster I would say relies heavily on the fortunes of the first team.

[ForsolongaRover]

Schofield inherited a lousy squad.
Nobody could have made a silk purse out of this lot, whatever tactics they used.
There will be a mass clear out at the end of the season.
So to be fair to Schofield, let him sign the players he wants with the extra investment and see how it goes.

No, no, no!! This is a terrible idea. Keep Dull Danny/Sleepy Schofield and our attendances are going to plummet. Club shop sales drop, sponsorship money vanish and forget the " catering income" the whole concept of Club Doncaster I would say relies heavily on the fortunes of the first team.

Agreed. Where is the evidence that he can improve any player's game? That is what coaches are supposed to do. The squad he inherited are far better than the appalling record of results that he has presided over. There is no evidence whatsoever that he can coach football at anything approaching  this level. 

[steve@dcfd]

Schofield inherited a lousy squad.
Nobody could have made a silk purse out of this lot, whatever tactics they used.
There will be a mass clear out at the end of the season.
So to be fair to Schofield, let him sign the players he wants with the extra investment and see how it goes.

Read what Copps said he believes when we get players in the summer they will add to our strong squad for this league. So he doesn’t believe we have a lousy squad as you put it. His judgement should be questioned

[Sammy Chung was King]

I think a lot of excuses are being made for him. Many managers have to come into a club, and use what they’ve been left by their predecessor.
With a fully fit starting eleven, there is enough in the side, under a different manager, to have been in the top three minimum.

He has decided to use a style of play alien to most of the side. I love the short passing game, but there must be a purpose to it.
He has had the usual injuries that every rovers manager gets. This has led to using players on the fringes of the side who are bottom half quality. First eleven-top three, Fringe players- lower half.

His biggest problems are, he hasn’t been able to get anywhere near the best out of any player. Injuries have led to a drop in the quality he has available. The board have not backed him enough, to give him a top quality squad- gone on the cheap as usual. The players he’s had available just aren’t good enough to think quickly enough, to play the short passing game.

 He has principles how he wants to play, I applaud that, but if you see it not working self preservation must set in to save your job.
I didn’t think it would work in the first place, but get no satisfaction from that. He had a reasonable start and a bit of optimism was building.

The clubs way of appointing managers and trying to recruit players, has caught up with them unfortunately. Now it will take a lot of hard work to dig ourselves out of this malaise, that’s set into the foundations of the club.

[BillyStubbsTears]

To be honest, I am behind DS for next season. He improved things when he came in initially. Then somewhere along the line we completely dropped off a cliff. He's really not had any transfer window of any description to work with. January was embarrassing for the club in terms of who left vs who came in but is that all his fault? I certainly don't think so.

The recent lack of fight and pride and not being in games is indeed worrying. But football has become too short-termist. We take bad form for a bad manager and I'm not really convinced by that.

On balance, I'll grit my teeth and give him a go.

Partly on instinct.

Partly because I've seen flashes of what I think he wants us to play like.

Partly because if we bring in an Evans-type manager, it might well squeeze a little more out of a squad like this, but it would not set us up for a sustainable return to L1.

Partly because I fail to see how any manager can be fairly judged when he hasn't had a chance to build his own squad, and when of the players he inherited, after 2 years of appalling recruitment, only  a slack handful have been available for more than 75% of games

Partly because I'm conscious (despite those who deny it here) of how vitriolic the atmosphere was against O'Driscoll in the early days, and how long it took him, with all the advantages he had, to start getting a far, far better squad to even look like half the sum of its parts[1].

So I'll give him a go. And hold my hand up if it goes tits up. I wonder if certain others would hold their hands up if it succeeds?


[1] Two games in particular stand out. The Cup match at Mansfield, when he dropped Heffernan after saying Guy was the best finisher at the club, and we spent 60 minutes firing 70 yard balls to McCammon on the left wing, with a big, striker-shaped void in the middle of the front line. The abuse that day was quite something. Then, 12 months later, after a string of utterly turgid performances, grindingly, crushingly dull, sterile keep-ball matches with barely a chance in them, we got totally outplayed by Yeovil. Our side that day was:

Sullivan
O'Connor
Lockwood
S Roberts
McDaid
Stock
Wellens
Wilson
Woods
Hayter
Guy

He selected Mark Wilson ahead of Paul Green, as he'd done for 9 months.

He put Jamie Coppinger on the bench as he'd done for the previous 2 months or so.

That was the nadir of that run of 45 points from 38 matches, with the most expensive, most carefully constructed squad we'd ever assembled up to that point. We were beyond awful that night. Again, the vitriol was shocking. It's one of only 2-3 games that I've ever left with 10 mins to go, because  was sick to the back teeth of watching the ponderous rubbish we were serving up. I vociferously wanted O'Driscoll out. So did the overwhelming majority in the ground that night.

[MachoMadness]

I'm still just about in the same camp as Copps' OP. The lack of fight and organisation is really poor, but the guy is on a hiding to nothing here. He inherited a shocking squad, sorely lacking in depth and quality, and didn't have a pre season to get them into shape. I think the rot had set in a lot deeper than we realise. Let's clear out the dead wood and give him a chance to succeed rather than setting him up to fail. Because any manager would be failing in this situation.

[pigeonhole]

To be honest, I am behind DS for next season. He improved things when he came in initially. Then somewhere along the line we completely dropped off a cliff. He's really not had any transfer window of any description to work with. January was embarrassing for the club in terms of who left vs who came in but is that all his fault? I certainly don't think so.

The recent lack of fight and pride and not being in games is indeed worrying. But football has become too short-termist. We take bad form for a bad manager and I'm not really convinced by that.

On balance, I'll grit my teeth and give him a go.

Partly on instinct.

Partly because I've seen flashes of what I think he wants us to play like.

Partly because if we bring in an Evans-type manager, it might well squeeze a little more out of a squad like this, but it would not set us up for a sustainable return to L1.

Partly because I fail to see how any manager can be fairly judged when he hasn't had a chance to build his own squad, and when of the players he inherited, after 2 years of appalling recruitment, only  a slack handful have been available for more than 75% of games

Partly because I'm conscious (despite those who deny it here) of how vitriolic the atmosphere was against O'Driscoll in the early days, and how long it took him, with all the advantages he had, to start getting a far, far better squad to even look like half the sum of its parts[1].

So I'll give him a go. And hold my hand up if it goes tits up. I wonder if certain others would hold their hands up if it succeeds?


[1] Two games in particular stand out. The Cup match at Mansfield, when he dropped Heffernan after saying Guy was the best finisher at the club, and we spent 60 minutes firing 70 yard balls to McCammon on the left wing, with a big, striker-shaped void in the middle of the front line. The abuse that day was quite something. Then, 12 months later, after a string of utterly turgid performances, grindingly, crushingly dull, sterile keep-ball matches with barely a chance in them, we got totally outplayed by Yeovil. Our side that day was:

Sullivan
O'Connor
Lockwood
S Roberts
McDaid
Stock
Wellens
Wilson
Woods
Hayter
Guy

He selected Mark Wilson ahead of Paul Green, as he'd done for 9 months.

He put Jamie Coppinger on the bench as he'd done for the previous 2 months or so.

That was the nadir of that run of 45 points from 38 matches, with the most expensive, most carefully constructed squad we'd ever assembled up to that point. We were beyond awful that night. Again, the vitriol was shocking. It's one of only 2-3 games that I've ever left with 10 mins to go, because  was sick to the back teeth of watching the ponderous rubbish we were serving up. I vociferously wanted O'Driscoll out. So did the overwhelming majority in the ground that night.

I can vividly remember how I felt during the Yeovil game and how I'm feeling now is remarkably similar. 

There is a slight difference though.  O'Driscoll did have some charisma and evident leadership qualities and his number 2 had charisma in spades.  I don't know whether I'm retrospectively projecting those attributes, because O'Driscoll was successful, but I recall him offering insight and explanations to what he wanted to do in press conferences.  That is in stark contrast to what we get now.

We get choice picks from a coaching glossary ad nauseam.  Moments cost us.  Do something on the training ground to stop those moments.  We didn't win enough first (or second, or third) contacts.  That has been churned out for MONTHS.  Do something on the training ground to alter that.  We struggled with the fundamentals (passing, tackling, running?  Shooting!) Do something on the training ground to alter that then.  By contrast, I don't know if I'm so irritated by Schofield's mantras because he is so unsuccessful. 

The Yeovil game stands out on its own as the nadir of O'Driscoll's reign.  We have endured numerous games where we haven't mustered a single corner or effort on or off target under Schofield.  It's just unheard of.  I would fancy Matlock to go to Manchester United and at least cross the halfway line.  We struggled to do this against Stevenage.  We're in a real mess and it would be blind faith trusting Schofield, or any of the personnel at the club at the moment, to fix it.

[Alan Southstand]

SOD and Schofield should never be mentioned in the same post (whoops, I’ve just done it).

SOD had history before joining us (JR told us all why he went all out to get him and ROK). What has DS done?

Don’t worry, BST, if the Club are daft enough to keep him in post and he (somehow) gets it right, then I’ll hold my hands up. Personally, there’s no way he should be here after the season’s sorry end.

[tommy toes]

BST
I was at the Mansfield game and remember shouting for O'Driscoll to f*** off back to Bournemouth, and I was one of many.
Thank god he didn't.
This is one reason why I think Schofield should be persevered with.

[Campsall rover]

BST
I was at the Mansfield game and remember shouting for O'Driscoll to f*** off back to Bournemouth, and I was one of many.
Thank god he didn't.
This is one reason why I think Schofield should be persevered with.

imo.

[BillyStubbsTears]

BST
I was at the Mansfield game and remember shouting for O'Driscoll to f*** off back to Bournemouth, and I was one of many.
Thank god he didn't.
This is one reason why I think Schofield should be persevered with.

To my shame, I was chanting the same.

It was stupid, ignorant, impatient and immature.

[drfchound]

There is no comparison   between the start of SoDs time with us and what we are seeing now.

[mpc123]

I was there too and have never shouted abuse. I am beyond frustrated and thank God I have a place to vent my anger in a more pleasant way on here.

DS is nowhere near the man to take us forward and the club are leaving it well too late, they have now got to the point where some of the 40+ years fans maybe won't return, even if successful.

It's become part of life now, where we don't turn up and only look for the score and have entertainment with the family.

I've not done that on a Saturday for 30+ years but now I had a choice be bored titless or spend time with my family.

It will take a mass turnaround for me to return and I'm sire many others will be the same.

Prolonging the matter allowing the clinger ons to still get more frustrated is just digging a deeper hole.

It needs a change of manager quick so we can all look forward to next year and getting behind the team, it's gone too far.

[Dare to dream!]

SOD had a good record before he joined us to suggest he could turn it around.

DS was sacked after 1 win in 9 games before he joined us.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Isn’t a large reason he’s here the relationship Copps has with Leigh Bromley who is HoF at Huddersfield. Just seems strange if so.

They obviously thought it wasn’t worth sticking with him and letting him build his own squad. Maybe any recommendation from Bromley was about his feeling guilty of sacking a nice guy so quickly

[BillyStubbsTears]

SOD had a good record before he joined us to suggest he could turn it around.

DS was sacked after 1 win in 9 games before he joined us.

O'Driscoll DID have a reasonable record before he joined us. He had one relegation and one promotion on his record.

It's worth looking at what he was like when he first started at Bournemouth.

His record after 1/3rd of his first season was:

P15 W1 D7 L7 Pts 10 PPG 0.67 - equivalent to 30-31 points over a full season.

I wonder how many of the "you can't compare O'Driscoll to Schofield" folk in here would have been willing to stick with a manager with that starting record...

[drfchound]

We have stuck with this manager after twice as many games and a much worse set of results.
No comparison.

[jmt23]

This was never ever, ever, ever a top 3 squad.

We are reaping the rewards of the mismanagement of funds, and player identification going back a few seasons now.

I’m not sure how far back this goes, but it has been a slow decline that only gets noticed when it gets too far.

I fully think the board thought we would get back up easily - as did some on here by the look of it(including me) it is usually what happens when you do have a team that is good higher league quality.
Until we fully change the playing staff we will struggle and so will ANY manager regardless of how they play, to get us back up into league 1.

[tommy toes]

O'Driscoll was the best manager in all my years going to the Rovers but...

Early on, until he got the players he needed, and got his style over to them, we were dire.

Late on when JR ran out of money and the squad was wafer thin and most of them were injured, we were terrible.
Remember us passing the ball about in our own half and getting nowhere?

Things are much the same now, due to the terrible squad of players we've got.
Schofield style of play is similar to SOD and is probably why they appointed him in the first place.
He needs better players to work with

[Branton Red]

This Sean O'Driscoll argument is both facile and irrational.

It could be used to excuse the continued employment of any manager regardless of their ineptitude. It is an argument therefore unhealthy to the prospects of the football club.

There is no evidence that just because O'Driscoll turned things around that Schofield is likely to do the same.

It is facile as: Schofield is not O'Driscoll; Rovers are in a completely different place off the field; the players are different and of both a different comparative quality and of different character; crucially Rovers are in the next division down.

It is irrational because it is not based on evidence at all but emotions. "Instinct", "guilt", "shame" at being wrong previously.

The evidence shows that under Schofield Rovers have been in relegation form since the turn of the year despite the manager being able to select a decent League 2 set of players for the majority of those games.

The evidence shows that supporters are staying away and not renewing their season tickets because of the poor form but also how tedious they find the football under Schofield. This is damaging the club financially.

The evidence shows that if Schofield is unable to turn things around and current long term form continues into next season Doncaster Rovers place in the Football League will come under threat.

Is it worth risking that outcome on an evidence-free argument and instincts??

[dickos1]

It seems there are plenty of other folk who are of the same opinion as me,
Maybe the ones who want him gone are much more vocal about it but it does seem on this thread all the ones who strongly want him gone are the same names that post about it all day everyday, but the ones wanting to give him a go are people who don’t post all the time about it.

[normal rules]

I will consume a substantial portion of humble pie if somehow DS manages to turn his process and next seasons squad into something that resembles a competitive entertaining side.
I don’t even insist on promotion.
I’d take balanced results. But I demand to witness the following basic ingredients that most football supporters thrive on:
Fight.
Determination.
Teamwork
Spirit.
Leadership on and off field.
Maybe even a few goals.
And I want to see the support base won back with all of the above.
I’ve seen nothing that gives me confidence that any of the above will happen, let alone all of the above.
Because, as good a textbook coach Schofield may be, he isn’t a motivator. He may want to lead this team, but they don’t give me the impression they are following. That is plain to see. Imo.
Textbook coaching will not succeed in lge 2.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Can afford to have a slow start because your implementing something deeper when the clubs on the up and has a decent base. When a clubs been in free fall it’s naive to think that won’t just compound things.

It’s not DS’s fault. In hiring him we probably didn’t read the room and grasp how fed up everyone is.

[Branton Red]

It seems there are plenty of other folk who are of the same opinion as me,
Maybe the ones who want him gone are much more vocal about it but it does seem on this thread all the ones who strongly want him gone are the same names that post about it all day everyday, but the ones wanting to give him a go are people who don’t post all the time about it.

www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?topic=287635.0

You're in a significant minority

[normal rules]

I feel sorry for TB. He is probably about to drop a few million quid on a roulette wheel. He will pick red, because that’s what Copps and DS will advise,  but there aren’t as many red slots as there should be. Because the wheel is already loaded.
And it’s not in his favour.
And if next season ends in ruin, again, the blame cannot and should not be laid at his door.

[scawsby steve]

It seems there are plenty of other folk who are of the same opinion as me,
Maybe the ones who want him gone are much more vocal about it but it does seem on this thread all the ones who strongly want him gone are the same names that post about it all day everyday, but the ones wanting to give him a go are people who don’t post all the time about it.

You call 10% plenty of folk?

In fact, I'll again ask all the DS apologists on here the same 2 questions I keep asking, to which I get no reply. Firstly, what is there on his CV that remotely suggests he's capable of achieving promotion from League 2?

Secondly, how big a hit are Rovers going to take in ST sales for next season if DS is kept on?

[Campsall rover]

It seems there are plenty of other folk who are of the same opinion as me,
Maybe the ones who want him gone are much more vocal about it but it does seem on this thread all the ones who strongly want him gone are the same names that post about it all day everyday, but the ones wanting to give him a go are people who don’t post all the time about it.

91.6% says your in a massive minority.

That pole is not Twitter, Face Book, but this DRFC Viking forum.
Ave age will probably be over 50 ( I have no facts on that but think it will be well over 50 ) so long term
die hard supporters in the case of quite a serious number i would think.

[sedwardsdrfc]

It seems there are plenty of other folk who are of the same opinion as me,
Maybe the ones who want him gone are much more vocal about it but it does seem on this thread all the ones who strongly want him gone are the same names that post about it all day everyday, but the ones wanting to give him a go are people who don’t post all the time about it.

i know you enjoy an argument but you’ll struggle with this one. Maybe that’s the point though

[oggycompton]

Not a chance. Awful, inflexible, dire defensive tactics and watches a different game to me every single week.