The FA needs Redknapp more than he needs them

Fabio Capello may well have won two-thirds of games while England boss but there is a well-known saying about statistics. In truth, there were few tears shed as the Italian, who could well been sacked after the World Cup 2010 debacle, tendered his resignation to the FA yesterday evening.

While Capello should be commended for achieving two straightforward qualifications – something predecessor Steve McClaren could not manage – and for resigning over what he saw as a matter of principle, his tenure of England boss will not be seen as a success.

England fans were right to expect plenty from somebody who came with a price tag of £6m a year but they never got it. I’m not from the camp that suggests England must have an English manager – the best man for the job should always get it, in my opinion -  but if you are recruiting from abroad at cost, then you expect value.

You at least expect something different. But Capello’s reign was littered with standard tactical problems that we thought had been left behind when Kevin Keegan left the old Wembley looking like a drowned rat. Capello stubbornly refused to shift from an archaic 4-4-2 in South Africa; it was only after he should have left the post when the manager realised a two-layered midfield is an international must.

It took Capello an age to realise that a limited England side’s best chance of winning big games was, essentially, to display a trait he should have known all about and instilled instantly. Capello should have seen the value of defensive discipline from all of his years managing in Serie A but the penny did not drop until the 1-0 friendly win against Spain in November last year. That particular art comes from having a settled back four and goalkeeper but Capello refused to pick Joe Hart, the obvious choice for number one, in the World Cup team of 2010.

Capello’s communication methods with the players were not rumoured to be good and the FA today admitted that telephone conversations were not easy. His sides failed to entertain at Wembley. There has been little coherence over selection with forwards constantly being a problem in the absence of our genuine world-class player, Wayne Rooney. Everyone had a go; as if Kevin Davies or Jay Bothroyd were going to be the answer. If they were, I’m not sure what the question was.

There were issues with the captaincy throughout his spell in charge and that was the problem that led to his resignation. It would have been better for all concerned had John Terry’s trial been sorted out by now as the outcome would have taken the decision out of the FA’s hands.

But while I sympathise that Capello was not properly consulted on the matter and not given the ultimate responsibility of his player, I’m still not disappointed that he is no longer England manager. As I said, he should have gone in the immediate aftermath of England’s biggest embarrassment at an international tournament since I started following the team.

Capello’s CV is impressive but he was clearly not suited to the toughest challenge in English football. There is now an obvious candidate to take up the role: Harry Redknapp. He is the ideal character to liven up the England dressing room and would command respect from players and supporters alike. But does Redknapp need to take on what is essentially a poisoned chalice?

Redknapp, who turns 65 three weeks tomorrow, could be forgiven for not wanting the stresses of this job. I, for one, was not pleased with Capello yet he had a 66.7% win rate. The media interest surrounding the position is non-stop and Redknapp has seen how your private life can suffer during his recent case, describing the last five years as “hell.”

Of the last four English managers, nobody has survived more than 28 games in charge. That list includes Terry Venables, who lost just one game in charge. Redknapp has a good job and received full backing from Tottenham during his court case. He has just seen at first hand how the FA board are still keen to make the big decisions in English football.

Peter Reid today spoke of the ‘pros’ and cons’ of taking any job in football. Although managing your country is generally seen as a calling, it’s hard to see what’s in the first column for Redknapp when you look at it pragmatically.

Redknapp would have a few weeks to prepare for a major tournament and then have two years to turn the fortunes of our long-suffering football team. Had Capello gone after South Africa, the next manager would have had a four-year cycle to prepare for the next World Cup. That’s still not a huge amount of time but is about as long as you get in this post.

But now England, just a few months away from a major tournament, has no captain, no manager and no long-term plan in place. The nation’s toughest job has just got tougher. The FA’s only hope is that Redknapp assesses things romantically and not practically. There is a chance that he might.

I’d love to see Redknapp take the job but he has turned Spurs into a vibrant top-three side who could develop into a genuine title contender in the next year or two. The cynics will say that Redknapp has achieved all he can at White Hart Lane but I’d say the FA need Redknapp a lot more than he needs them right now.

The calendar year of 2011 was a difficult one for Sean O’Driscoll. After previously being linked with a number of high-profile jobs, O’Driscoll suffered a difficult spell at Doncaster Rovers and subsequently lost his role as manager.

O’Driscoll was in pole position to land a Premier League managerial position at Burnley in January 2010 and a Championship job at Sheffield United at the end of the year but opted to stay at Donny.

A high number of injuries in 2011 sparked a terrible slump in performances and results and, after collecting 17 points from a total of 31 games, O’Driscoll bit the bullet.

Was this a harsh decision by the club? Yes and no. O’Driscoll had done well enough to keep his job as long as he wanted it, but the reality was that relegation was staring Doncaster in the face unless something changed.

Some might stay that a drop down to League One after four consecutive years in the Championship is a natural one for a club with our limited finances and, in that event, O’Driscoll would be the ideal man to build another promotion-chasing side.

But the men who put the money into Doncaster Rovers desperately want to preserve the club’s Championship status and decided a change was necessary. This was hard to argue against based on the statistics alone.

Personally I don’t feel that staying up in the Championship is the be-all and end-all to a club of our size but, at the end of the day, who knows how I’d feel if it was my millions being pumped into Rovers.

So, although I would have kept O’Driscoll on and was sad to see him go, I can understand why the board felt something had to give.

Since then, the former Bournemouth stalwart has been linked with jobs at Bristol Rovers, Northampton Town and Preston North End but opted instead to work as an unofficial mentor to Carl Fletcher, one of his former players, at Plymouth.

I tweeted only yesterday that seemed to be, with all due respect to Argyle, a disappointing situation for O’Driscoll. Plymouth are bottom of the Football League and O’Driscoll wasn’t even being given the opportunity to manage them.

Plymouth are a fine club in their own right but surely O’Driscoll, in five generally successful years at Doncaster, deserved another chance in the Championship.

Only hours after posting that tweet, O’Driscoll had one. But I have to say, like Plymouth, it’s another interesting situation to say the least. O’Driscoll has not been given a managerial position; he has landed the role as first team coach at struggling Nottingham Forest.

Helping out former Bournemouth colleague Steve Cotterill in the second tier of English football at a club with a great history is a good opportunity to get back into football on the face of it. However, when you examine things a little more closely, the move to bring in O’Driscoll to assist Cotterill does not make a huge amount of sense to the untrained eye.

Their personalities and methods are chalk and cheese; as footballers and managers. O’Driscoll was the creative central midfielder at the heart of Bournemouth’s play while Cotterill played the role of old-fashioned centre forward.

Cotterill is the firefighter, the streetfighter, the man who loves to develop a siege mentality in a bid to galvanise his charges. His pragmatic approach is not generally liked by supporters but Cotterill has got results at Stoke, Burnley, Notts County and Portsmouth. It’s understandable. Aesthetics don’t pay the rent, after all. They don’t go down in the history books.

O’Driscoll is a football romantic who places emphasis on processes and not outcomes. For him, performance is everything because you cannot control the result. In O’Driscoll’s mind, if you focus on all of those behind the scene nitty-gritties, then the end product will look after itself.

He too has operated on a shoestring but demands footballers who fit a certain profile. O’Driscoll wants forward-thinkers, those who are brave enough to demand the ball and take command of its destiny. O’Driscoll wants his team to dominate possession, even if they are not actively looking to score. If you have the ball, the opposition can’t do any damage, after all.

Cotterill’s definition of bravery is different. He is a man of the trenches, one who wants his colleagues to fight for everything. Cotterill is happy to sacrifice possession for territory, the master of the nicked 1-0 away win with men tucked safely behind the ball. Those battling qualities his sides possess were one of the reasons he was given the job in the first place.

His start was promising but suddenly, it’s all gone a bit Frank Spencer. Forest have won just once in eleven games, and in the ten matches where they have failed to win, they have also failed to score. Their latest defeat, a disgraceful 4-0 F.A.Cup defeat at Leicester, epitomised their problems.

Granted they were without their rocks, Wes Morgan and Luke Chambers, and key striker Marcus Tudgay, but Forest defended like schoolboys, even with six men designed to be behind the ball at all times, and showed little attacking intent.

The third goal was a microcosm of their miserable evening, with one direct ball causing problems. Joel Lynch was easily beaten for a header by David Nugent and Jermaine Beckford got the wrong side of makeshift centre half Guy Moussi. There was no clever build-up play, or cute use of angles, just a punt forward, a flick on, and a neat finish.

Jonathan Greening and George Boateng were brought in as experienced midfield minds but their bodies look tired. Their limited possession was shifted sideways and backwards, their shield-like qualities were not apparent. Andy Reid is a technician but was in no man’s land between the midfield and lone frontman, Marlon Harewood, who was given aimless long balls to chase. Forest’s wide men were ineffective and one of them, Robbie Findley, missed their one clear-cut chance – the definition of an open goal, even in the world of football clichés.

Based on the evidence of Tuesday evening, it is hard to see how O’Driscoll cannot come to Forest’s aid but how will the new structure work?

If O’Driscoll preaches a careful passing game on the training ground but Cotterill prefers his more direct methods, then how will it fit together? O’Driscoll refused to sacrifice his principles in five years at Doncaster, even when the team were bottom of the league, so why will that change now? Cotterill has made a living by setting his teams out in a completely different way, so will he change his beliefs at a time when strong minds are needed most?

Cotterill reports the two to be good friends but tensions were high in last season’s meetings between Portsmouth and Doncaster, when the two were rival managers. In a particularly bad-tempered affair at the Keepmoat, O’Driscoll was visibly annoyed by Portsmouth’s tactics and he and Cotterill nearly came face-to-face at one point. It is the only time I’ve ever seen O’Driscoll get cross with an opposing manager. It may just have been a heat of the moment thing, of course.

The reason O’Driscoll left his position at Donny was that results were not forthcoming and that is what Forest need at the moment. Perhaps the best way to get them is to completely change the approach, but O’Driscoll lacks the power to do that as first team coach. If the style is changed, then O’Driscoll will surely get the credit if performances and results improve, and if it isn’t, then it will be obvious that he has not been allowed to make alterations. Either way, Cotterill isn’t going to come out of it with any credit, which makes his position difficult.

If Forest wanted to change their approach, the sensible idea would have been to appoint O’Driscoll as manager back in November. If they didn’t believe in his methods at that point, then what has changed since? Even if they believe fully in them now, how can they be fully utilised in the position he has been given?

O’Driscoll the tactician and Cotterill the motivator is obviously how it’s seen, but managers hate being pigeon-holed and want full control of the operation. I don’t know what happened to Billy Davies at Forest but he did a great job; nobody realised how good until he had gone. Either side of his appointment, Forest have been in the bottom three in this league so Cotterill and O’Driscoll have their work cut out, however they set about forming a partnership.

O’Driscoll, I feel, can be the man for Forest’s job. Just not necessarily the one he’s been given.

Knitters Lav the big games

A pair of Nuneaton old-boys inflicted plenty of misery on their former team as Hinckley United made a mockery of the Blue Square North table by landing an emphatic 5-2 away win on New Year’s Day.

Richard Lavery opened the scoring with just 46 seconds on the clock while the impressive Sam Belcher added the third and fifth goals as third-bottom Hinckley thrashed their fourth-placed rivals.

Skipper Andy Gooding and the dangerous Andre Gray were also on target for Dean Thomas’ men, who gained full reward for their attacking 4-4-2 formation.

The masterstroke from Thomas was placing usual wide man Lloyd Kerry at right back to allow Belcher to wreak havoc by drifting drift inside off the flank.

With Tom Byrne, Lavery and Gooding also getting forward to support the brilliant forward duo Danny Newton and Gray, the Knitters looked like scoring every time they went forward.

That trend started from the very first attack of the game. Newton beat goalkeeper Craig Alcock to Gray’s cross from the right and his flick-on was headed home by Lavery, who paid respect to his former club by not celebrating a goal he simply could not miss.

Hinckley doubled their advantage after 14 minutes following a well-worked move down the left-hand side. Byrne jinked his way down the flank before playing in Newton, whose pass was expertly finished by Gooding from the edge of the box.

When Belcher lashed home a shot from a similar position after linking well with Gray, the Knitters were 3-0 up after just 22 minutes. It could have been even better had Gray squared the ball when well-placed rather than going for goal but no doubt the visitors were delighted with how the afternoon was taking shape.

Nuneaton needed a response and Lavery was on hand to make a block that was as painful as it was crucial. Denham Hinds then dealt well with Wesley York’s dipping shot to keep the three-goal lead intact before Gray spurned a marvellous chance to kill the game on the stroke of half-time.

The striker latched onto a super ball from partner Newton but uncharacteristically slashed the one-on-one opportunity wide. Nuneaton were fortunate to still have a sniff and no doubt received some hairdryer treatment from manager Kevin Wilkin at half-time.

The players could have done with such a device as the second half kicked off as the heavens opened during the interval. Home fans scurried for cover behind the goal they were now attacking and the Knitters knew that Nuneaton were going to throw everything at them.

The visitors needed to keep their goal intact but conceded inside two minutes as Gareth Dean lost marker Callum Flanagan to plant home a header from a free-kick on the left.

Nuneaton were well up for it now and almost pulled another back from an identical situation. On this occasion, Flanagan cleared from under his own bar after a home player flicked the ball over Hinds in the six-yard box.

It was backs-to-the-wall stuff as Nuneaton scented blood but Hinckley managed to notch a fourth goal against the run of play just before the hour-mark. Newton was again provider as he played in Gray, who turned and passed the ball into the corner for a goal that knocked the stuffing out of their rivals.

Nuneaton conceded a soft fifth goal after 71 minutes as Byrne was bundled to the ground following a mazy run and Belcher belted the penalty down the middle. Hinckley may now have sensed a sixth or seventh against a side at sixes and sevens but the home side did not give up and Adam Walker flicked home a nice finish after a period of pressure.

Hinds was forced to make another smart save as Nuneaton kept pressing but Hinckley could also easily have added to their tally, with substitutes George Thompson and Jake Holt going close.

This was definitely Hinckley’s afternoon as they built on a 1-1 draw against the same opposition on Boxing Day. The Knitters have shown what they are capable of in these games plus cup fixtures against Conference sides Wrexham, Darlington and Tamworth and a charge up the table will now surely follow.

Finding a way…

Steve Waugh knew there was something about Paul Nixon during their time together at Kent. Waugh once said: “Nico should have been born an Australian.” It was the ultimate tribute from a man so proud to wear the Baggy Green.

Waugh also said that there are no fairytales in sport but he might have to revise that now for his old teammate. For Nixon had the perfect finale to his professional playing career in England.

The veteran played a key part in Leicestershire Foxes’ thrilling third Friends Life t20 title.  Nixon threw himself full-length to take a crucial one-handed catch for the team at a packed Edgbaston on Saturday evening.

“Every fairytale needs a sprinkling of magic,” grinned Matthew Hoggard in the post-match press conference, complete with a straw hat donated by a Leicestershire fan and an ice cold bottle of beer. “That was the sprinkling.”

Hoggard was spot on; the dismissal of Kieron Pollard proved the catalyst for an 18-run win that nobody outside of Leicestershire believed was possible. The feeling within the camp, of course, was the polar opposite.

“As a squad, we’ve had a belief in our abilities to get over the line, whatever the situation,” said Will Jefferson, the hero of the one-over eliminator that clinched a thrilling semi-final triumph against Lancashire Lightning.

“We talk about finding a way,” said Nixon. Josh Cobb echoed those sentiments: “We’ve always found a way to win,” he said, during the rain delay in the quarter-final tie against Kent. That was one of many games the Foxes pulled out of the bag during a fantastic campaign.

Cobb’s Finals Day story epitomised the spirit within the Leicestershire camp. It started horribly with a diamond duck but Cobb showed a tremendous lack of fear to go out to bat in the one-over shoot-out.

What was going through his mind? “The mindset was pretty simple: Clear the ropes,” he laughed. “It was the last chance saloon.”  In walking off the field as a winner alongside Jefferson, Cobb’s day had taken a significant turn for the better. It didn’t stop there.

Cobb took four wickets and completed a smart run out in the final as part of a man-of-the-match performance. He was also one of the few batsmen who scored freely in the showpiece game, gathering 18 runs from just 10 balls.

It took some bottle; as it did for Wayne White, who suffered the horrible feeling of going for the last-ball six in the semi-final that tied the game. White too bounced back, hitting a brisk 10 not out from five deliveries in the final before claiming that key wicket of Pollard via Nixon’s super glovework.

The duo’s character will not have been lost on Nixon, who picked up Cobb just hours after he was born. Just over 21 years later (Cobb celebrated his birthday during the recent LV=CC game at Colwyn Bay), the duo were holding a trophy and enjoying a drop of bubbly on the Edgbaston turf.

This was the stuff that dreams are made of. “Thankfully, it was written in the stars today,” said Nixon, with a glint in his eye.  “The timing was right, everything was right.

“The Kent game at home was very special and I felt like that was my send-off. Mentally, I felt that this was business time; that this was for the lads, who’d given me so much.

“That Kent game was for me, this is for everyone else. This is for Leicestershire as a Club. This is for Leicestershire as a county.”

It had all made for terrific viewing from the state-of-the-art press box at Edgbaston, where the media were very well looked after. Warwickshire had provided enough food and drink to cater for everybody twice over.

There were programmes, scorecards and information aplenty. Nothing was too much trouble; the little touches make a big difference and everything had been thought through.

I say terrific viewing, but I could barely watch the closing stages of the game against Lancashire. By the end of it, I felt physically sick; almost ready to explode at the combination of excitement and tension.

Thankfully, the players were the calmest people in the ground and it was fantastic for Phil Whitticase, his backroom staff, Chairman Paul Haywood, Chief Executive Mike Siddall, the Board of Directors, the committee members, the Club staff and the supporters to be part of this thrilling triumph.

From Abdul Razzaq’s hitting masterclass alongside White’s clean hitting at Lancashire at Old Trafford to the fearless batting of James Taylor and Jacques du Toit against Derbyshire at home, the Foxes developed a winning habit.

Brilliant all-rounder Andrew McDonald was the competition’s leading run-scorer and chipped in with runs and good catches, left arm paceman Harry Gurney was among the top wicket-takers and added hostility to the attack.

Look up economy in the dictionary and Claude Henderson’s picture would be next to it. Matthew Boyce, although not getting the opportunity to have much of a bat, was like dynamite in the field.

Hoggard took wickets throughout and showed his class and experience on Finals Day while Jigar Naik took three wickets in his first over of t20 this season and was always ready to come into the side.

Cobb and Jefferson were destructive in the powerplay overs, while Nixon, in his last professional season, importantly helped get the Foxes off to a winning start at Wantage Road.

They didn’t look back after ending Northamptonshire’s unbeaten start to the season. “Everyone has come to the party,” smiled Nixon. And everyone was going to one too, to celebrate this phenomenal achievement.

Throwing stones in glass cities

Being a football manager can be like trying to build a city out of glass. No matter how much time, care and patience you put into it, the fragile nature of the structure makes you vulnerable; it’s only ever a couple of minutes away from being shattered.

Take Arsene Wenger, for example. He may have introduced a whole new culture to English football, he may have signed terrific players, he may have brought trophies to the club. But Arsenal have not won anything for a while and Wenger is under fire from all angles.

While Wenger’s sulky manner on the touchline and lack of vision of key events in matches involving his side can be irritating, it is only because he is protective of his club and has a huge desire to win. Nobody can question what he has brought to Arsenal and the game of football in England. He has been an inspiration.

Wenger once went a whole season undefeated in the Premier League and he has introduced players of the calibre of Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas to England. It has been sad for myself, as a neutral, to see Wenger receive such stinging criticism from all quarters – particularly the media – because he deserves more respect.

Perhaps it is easy for me to enjoy Arsenal’s football because I do not hang on their every result like the diehard. But I see similarities to Wenger in Sean O’Driscoll, the manager of the club closest to my heart.

Dave Penney did a terrific job to take us from the Conference to League One but O’Driscoll’s tactical awareness and eye for a player allowed us to take the next step. He transformed us into a side that has mixed it with the Championship’s best for three seasons on a shoestring. We have been labelled the ‘Arsenal of the North’ as a result.

Now, four games into the new campaign, we sit at the foot of the table with a lengthy long-term injury list including key duo Billy Sharp and James Hayter, one goal and no points. We have not won a league game since March 1. Already, like in Wenger’s case, there have been calls for O’Driscoll’s head.

I’ve been watching Doncaster since 1993 and if anyone thinks this is bad, then they can’t have stood among their own piss at Northampton’s old ground, or witnessed the 1-0 defeat at home to Forest Green Rovers at Belle Vue. My goodness, I have seen some shite over the years. These are still great days at Doncaster Rovers, I promise you.

We always knew this year was going to be tough. In the first season of the Championship, we were bottom on Boxing Day with barely a point or goal to our name and we stayed up comfortably. I’m not saying we’ll do that again but there’s no reason why we won’t start to pick up points once players start coming back – and even before then.

Although that is heavily dependent on a good squad of players, I have belief in O’Driscoll, for he has installed a culture at Donny that goes beyond individual results. His focus on performance may appear obsessional to the neutral but it was that approach that kept us afloat after promotion.

We have learnt and accepted that you can play well and lose. That, to many, is no good – I can understand that. But a football season is a 46-game marathon, not a four-game sprint. Sure, it is better to have a good start to the season than a poor one, but how you begin is neither here nor there. League tables at this stage, quite frankly, are a nonsense. Maybe that’s easy to say when you’re bottom but O’Driscoll would laugh it off if we were top.

Although Arsenal and Doncaster may well go on to have poor seasons – and the definitions of that will vary widely – they each have a manager who has transformed the working environments at their clubs. They each have managers who invest in people as much as players; leaders who are prepared to invest in youth and cast the net far and wide to find their latest rough diamond.

I don’t quite know when and why but football has become win-win-win to the extent that managers are now ten-a-penny rather than valued. There is always a bigger picture. Doncaster Rovers will be said to be facing a crisis but we nearly went out of business in the 90s. Losing four games is disappointing but the situation is not irretrievable.

Wenger, meanwhile, has had to say that he’s not a quitter after taking one point from two Premier League games. Does he really have to fight for his job after two league games? Do his achievements since taking over in 1996 count for so little?

I appreciate the frustrations of Arsenal fans but Wenger’s method is proven to work and he built those exceptional Arsenal sides that brought glory in the past. Arsenal won with an identity. Doncaster achieved promotion and survival with an identity. It is increasingly difficult to do that in a game where money talks, but it has been done before. I, for one, admire the fact that both Wenger and O’Driscoll believe it can be done again.

I’m not suggesting that either manager is flawless, or that supporters and journalists cannot ask questions. But if both managers were to leave tomorrow, would it really improve the long-term fortunes of either club? People who disagree with me will argue yes, and, that when change is needed, it’s a switch at the top.

But would it be change for the better or simply for change’s sake? Sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for because glass cities, like Rome, cannot be built in a day.

Under no illusions

If the first week of the season is anything to go by, then Sean O’Driscoll is facing a long, hard season as Doncaster Rovers manager. The team lost an equaliser in the 83rd minute at Brighton and a winner in the eighth minute of injury time. As if that somehow wasn’t enough, Rovers saw their two leading goal threats depart the Amex Stadium on a stretcher.

With Billy Sharp and James Hayter joining seven others on the injury list, Donny could ill-afford to lose anyone else in the League Cup game against fellow Rovers, of Tranmere. Imagine O’Driscoll’s horror when talented playmaker Ryan Mason became the third player to be carried off in agony in the space of two games.

So now Doncaster have to prepare for tough back-to-back home games with promotion fancies West Ham and Nottingham Forest with a full team unavailable. There are no guarantees that Muzzy Dumbuya and Richard Naylor will be fit either, while Rachid Bouhenna awaits international clearance and Chris Brown is struggling to get through 90 minutes at the moment.

While certain clubs have expressed disappointment at the number of subs allowed dropping to seven, O’Driscoll will be pleased to be able to name five. An attacking option among them? Unlikely, unless a loan move goes through, because Giles Barnes and Kyle Bennett will probably start. O’Driscoll’s task to keep Rovers competitive in an uncompromising division is getting tougher.

Rovers, I feel, are at a Championship crossroads. We no longer have the momentum that comes with promotion (Brighton, Southampton and Peterborough benefitted from this last week), we are no longer a club that is under-estimated (like the first year), we no longer have the likes of Matt Mills, Richie Wellens, Jason Shackell, Elliott Ward or Gareth Roberts and too many key players are sidelined.

Perhaps most worryingly, we are not able to compete financially with many of our rivals. One therefore has to sympathise with O’Driscoll, his assistant Richard O’Kelly, Chairman John Ryan and the directors. They all know what we need to be successful but it is not sustainable to plough money into the football club the size of ours, because that only goes one way.

The team’s search for a league victory stretches back to Tuesday, March 1 at Derby. How do we end that sequence? How can we get to 50 points with all of these long-term injuries? In some senses, all we can do is try to win the next game. Which brings me back to an excellent article on O’Driscoll written by Michael Walker last season after our excellent start. In that interview, O’Driscoll was quizzed on his ambition for the campaign.

He said: “Our ambition is to win the next game.” And beyond that?  “Win the next game. That’s my ambition.” He later added: “To go back to your original question about where that will take us, I haven’t got a clue. And in some senses, I don’t care. It’s pointless if I’m fixated on promotion.

“I’m under no illusions that I have to win matches but for me the best way to do that is to have a team that is flexible, made of players who understand why we do what we do. And when we do that well, we’re as good as anybody.”

While luck has not been on O’Driscoll’s side since that interview, his philosophy will remain the same. Rovers will go out tomorrow afternoon looking to play good football, looking to put in a performance, looking for a way to overcome a West Ham side who possess a Premiership midfield in the form of Scott Parker, Mark Noble, Kevin Nolan and Matt Taylor.

The odds will be stacked against us, but, in all honesty, when are they not? O’Driscoll said he will send the team out with no fear and I reckon that is the way to go. If we go out feeling sorry for ourselves, if we are in awe of the Hammers, we’ll get beat. However, if we’re positive in everything we do, if we’re competitive and creative in equal measure, then you never know.

With eleven players (at least) unavailable, will that be enough? And where will that approach take us this season? I don’t know, and in some senses, I don’t care. We’ve already been written off but we’ll give it our best shot. I can’t speak highly enough of O’Driscoll or his players, and will back them to the hilt, whatever the weather.

Rovers make it four

It is that time of the year where everybody talks in length about their team’s season and the one ahead. But I’m going to keep it fairly brief!

Doncaster Rovers had a terrific start to the season and were in play-off contention early in the New Year, but a terrible second half meant Rovers were sucked into a relegation battle.

Although it was more nervy than anyone would have liked, the only thing that matters is that Donny got over the finishing line without having to win any of their final 12 games.

But we’ll start again from scratch in 2011-12. Neither Rovers, Palace nor Derby got to the coveted 50-point mark and all three could (maybe should) have gone down. Scunthorpe, Sheffield United and Preston each getting 42 points is, frankly, awful.

Many viewed finishing 21st as a disappointment but I said at the start of the year I’d take fourth-bottom and O’Driscoll to still be at the helm. My attitude is always to get to 50 points and go from there. We got 48 this term; if we don’t register 50 this time, we can’t expect another reprieve.

Although I would have loved to have seen us finish higher, being in the Championship for a fourth consecutive season should not be taken for granted. Just look at what happened to the Blades, who, at £12m, had a far bigger wage budget than ourselves.

A lot of our problems came down to injuries and O’Driscoll struggled to put a squad out at times. However, you have to look at factors that can be controlled.

Rovers were leaky at the back and although that stems from the back five as a collective, Doncaster badly lacked a commanding centre half in the mould of Matt Mills, Jason Shackell and Elliot Ward.

George Friend had a successful conversion from left back but Shelton Martis wasn’t available enough and signings Matt Kilgallon, Wayne Thomas and Dennis Souza did not nail down a place. All three have moved on.

In Jimmy O’Connor, Muzzy Dumbuya, (potentially) Joe Mills and Friend (who could play left back if needed), the full back positions are sorted. Even if Martis comes back fully fit and firing, I’d like to see another CB to come in to challenge for the position.

Elsewhere, the team coped without Brian Stock for long periods but struggled for goals whenever Billy Sharp and James Hayter weren’t around and lacked creativity if James Coppinger was out. Ryan Mason, Franck Moussa and Jason Euell were excellent loan signings – but will any of them return?

With Martin Woods barely playing a game, he will be like the proverbial new signing, so we are covered in central areas if Stock is out long-term like suggested. The under-rated Simon Gillett is an ideal partner for Woods while John Oster and Mark Wilson are good players.

So my hopes for this term? My Championship philosophy is unchanged; every point is precious, fourth-bottom is fine and O’Driscoll is the right man for the job.