Doncaster's Great Escape Masks a Rather Concerning Habit
Rovers secured League One survival with a 3-1 win at Northampton, but a remarkable stat reveals why next season might require a serious rethink of their finishing school credentials.
Doncaster Rovers can finally exhale. Their 3-1 victory at Northampton not only secured League One status for another campaign but also provided a rare glimpse of what happens when they actually put teams to the sword. The trouble is, such sightings have been about as frequent as a referee admitting they got one wrong.
Elliot Lee, Hakeeb Adelakun, and substitute George Broadbent provided the goals that ensured Rovers won't be sampling the delights of non-league football next term. All very commendable, except for one rather eye-watering detail: this marked only the third time this season that Doncaster have managed to win by more than a single goal.
Let that sink in for a moment. Across 43 league outings, Rovers have mustered just three convincing victories. The other two occasions when they remembered how to properly finish off opponents came against Bradford at home back in September and Leyton Orient, also at home, in January. Spot the pattern there – home comforts clearly help when it comes to administering a proper footballing lesson.
With 16 league wins from those 43 matches, it means Doncaster have been operating on the thinnest of margins for the vast majority of their successful outings. Thirteen of their victories have come by a single goal, suggesting either nerves of steel or a concerning inability to kill games off when in control.
For a side that's spent much of the campaign looking over their shoulder at the relegation trap door, this tendency to keep things unnecessarily tight has likely aged their supporters considerably. There's something to be said for dramatic tension, but when survival is at stake, most fans would gladly trade nail-biting finishes for the occasional comfortable afternoon.
The timing of this revelation, coming as it does with League One safety finally assured, provides the perfect opportunity for some honest reflection. While avoiding the drop is obviously the primary objective, the inability to put teams away suggests deeper issues that could prove problematic when facing stronger opposition next season.
Doncaster's coaching staff will undoubtedly spend the summer pondering how to transform those narrow squeaks into more comfortable victories. Because while surviving by the skin of your teeth once might be character-building, making a habit of it suggests you're doing something fundamentally wrong.
The good news? They've got a whole summer to work on their finishing school credentials before doing it all over again.