Pete Williams: Rovers' mistake was not sacking Dickov sooner

With the gift of hindsight, John Ryan’s decision to employ Paul Dickov was the start of the serious rot, although clearly he can be permitted one error in judgement having saved the entire club.

Subsequently, and to their credit, Rovers were swift in recognising the decline and opted for change but it should have happened sooner.

The consequent employment of Darren Ferguson was also arguably forgivable since his previous record gave no indication of the catastrophic slump to follow and no doubt the thought of the Old Man occasionally looking over the boy’s shoulder imparting pearls of tactical wisdom was perhaps thought to be a given.

However, as Mr Lavender pointed out, events on the pitch since the beginning of this year offer no basis for confidence in the current management and it must be borne in mind that, although League Two is catastrophic, it is by no means the worst that can happen as older fans will ruefully recall.

I for one would have very little confidence in the club being able to rise from the Conference once again.

The mistake with Dickov was letting him set his own agenda following poor results at the end of a poor season, instead of giving a new man the close season to restructure the side.

Are Rovers about to make the same mistake again?

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