Doncaster Rovers: Ferguson accepts he has to win over fans

Ferguson won nine of his first 15 games in charge after being named as Paul Dickov’s successor in October.

Rovers climbed out of the bottom four and up to 11th in the table following a 3-0 win at Southend on January 3.

But, despite a late rally, a cataclysmic run of 17 games without a win saw Doncaster nosedive and unable to prevent a return to the fourth tier for the first time in more than a decade.

“I would be pretty foolish not to think that [I still have to win over the fans],” Ferguson said.

“I hope that a lot of them can see what I’m trying to do with the club.

“But obviously when you go 17 games without a win, it doesn’t matter who you are, I can’t have any excuses for that.

“The one thing I would say is that I will always try my hardest to make sure I make the right decision more often than I make the wrong ones.

“Of course I’ve got to win them over.

“There’s a lot of pressure now on me come the start of the season, but I can cope with that.

“Regardless of how this season went there’s always pressure.

“As a manager you could always be thinking you’ve got five games because if you lose five on the bounce you could be out of a job.

“But thankfully I’ve got people that can see what I’m doing and want to support that.

“The fans have been great,” he added.

“Of course, you’re going to get criticism and of course there’s there’ll be people who say I’m not the right man.

“But generally the fans have been really good and I think we’ve been lucky they’ve stuck with us as much as they have.”