Source: FOOTYMAD
Rovers Mickey Walker - We're not afraid of anyone in this division
The next few games on Doncaster Rovers' fixture list illustrate just how fortunes in football can fluctuate Rovers play host to Derby County on Tuesday, before a home derby against Sheffield United in six days' time and then a trip to Reading at the end of the month.All three are former Premiership clubs. In fact, County were in the top flight when Rovers were plying their trade as a non-league club a decade ago.When Reading and the Blades were promoted together into the Premiership, at the end of the 2005-6 campaign, Doncaster finished eighth in League One, just missing out on the play-offs.Now the clubs are meeting as equals, with Rovers fancying their chances of victory in all three games. Before the 3-1 win against Scunthorpe, Donny were above both the Rams and Sheffield United in the Championship table and only three points behind the Royals.Rovers director of football Mickey Walker sees the next couple of weeks as evidence of how far the Keepmoat Stadium club have progressed in less than a decade, but also a warning that in football things can go wrong almost overnight."We played Derby in our first game in the Championship and beat them 1-0," Walker recalled. "We're not afraid of them or anybody in this division."Sheffield United are a big club, but we have got players equal to if not better than theirs. They have all been top clubs and it shows how quickly teams can rise and fall."A few years ago if Sheffield United had come to Doncaster they would be thinking they could beat us without really trying."Now they'll be coming and giving us the respect we deserve. They'll know they're in for a tough game, if not one of the hardest."It's still very early, but - according to Walker - the next 13 days could be crucial in shaping Rovers' season."We are fearful of nobody," he stressed. "I think we've got a good chance in the next four or five games of picking up the points we deserve and, if we do that, we'll be moving up to the edge of the top-six."So far, Walker reckons, Rovers haven't been properly rewarded for the style of football they have played, winning three, losing three and drawing four of their opening 10 . That's not a bad return, but not as good as it could and should have been. "The way we've played, it has been disappointing," Walker said."We've been playing really well."In the Coventry game we were excellent. We played some really good football, we could have been four or five up, but we ended up losing 2-1 in the last minute."In football sometimes you don't get your just rewards, and that's happened to us. "We've played some very, very good football, but we're probably not finishing teams off at the right time, scoring goals when they don't have a chance to get back into the game."But Sean O'Driscoll is sticking with his way of playing and it's proving its worth."Rovers' performance against run-away leaders QPR was an example of how good they can be, Walker insists, if they apply a killer touch.The Londoners won 3-0, in a game Walker didn't attend, but he said: "I was talking to their manager Neil Warnock on the Sunday after the match. "He said, territorially, we played them off the park, but they came up with the goods and were lucky enough to finish us off. "He didn't think they could have got back in it if they had gone a goal or two down."It shows we can do it against the top teams. We just need to finish off at the right times."Walker believes Doncaster is "unique" in being a family club - where everyone is in it together from the cleaners and the chefs through to the manager and chief executive - operating at a very high level.Walker said Rovers will stick to their guns, and look to continue to improve, as they consolidate in what is now their third season in English football's second tier."Things don't change," he said. "The tempo and structure are bang on and we are improving all the time, year on year."The standard is getting quicker. The players are very, very good and they are improving all the time - as a squad and not just as individuals."With Rovers delicately poised in mid-table, Walker won't be drawn on what he would consider to be a successful season. The play-offs are within touching distance, but equally, Doncaster are too close to the relegation zone for complete comfort."The aim is to win the next game, every week," he said. "You can set targets, but you're there to be shot at if you do."Every week is another journey and we've been on some great journeys over the last few years."In the longer-term, Walker - who has been at Rovers since the dark days of Conference football, as assistant manager and caretaker boss - believes the sky is the limit for the South Yorkshire club."My aim since I have been at the club was to get it into the Football League and then to be an established Championship or even Premiership club which has some stability and is respected throughout the football world."I think we're on the way to doing that. When you go abroad, you see people wearing Leeds United and Manchester United and Liverpool shirts - now people go on holiday and they wear Doncaster Rovers' red and white hooped shirts."In the streets, it used to be all Premiership shirts, now kids are wearing Doncaster Rovers shirts and that is an indication we're heading in the right direction."It it 12 years since we went out of the league and we have come a long way in that time."What clubs like Burnley and Blackpool have achieved over the last few years has inspired every club of Rovers' size and Walker describes the Seasiders, in particular, as a "shining light".They are a club who had their glory days, fell on hard times, but have battled their way back. "It is nice to see what they are doing there," he said. "If they can do it, why not us? I'm optimistic."You look at some of the teams in the Premiership, like West Brom, that's not a town, it's a suburb. We are a town and we could be a city soon."You can go whatever way you want to go. "It's all about putting the foundations in place, making sure they are firm and making sure you don't fall down
