CAPTAIN'S TABLE: Rob Jones on leading Doncaster Rovers to glory in 2013

This description of the role of a captain comes from a man who certainly lived by those words - particularly during one season which cemented his place in Doncaster Rovers legend.

The 2012/13 season, which brought a league title for the club, belonged to Rob Jones.

‘The Corporal’ was the epitome of leading by example. A rock at the back, dangerous at the front, a born leader.

There were times when he seemed to drag his team through

He ended the season holding the League One trophy aloft, nine months after his arrival at the club.

“That season really couldn’t have gone much better,” he told the Free Press.

“I was made captain very quickly after coming in from Sheffield Wednesday. We won the first game 3-0 at Walsall and it was a great start for us.

“It was really about trying to hit the ground running and we managed to do that.

“I think my first year at Doncaster was probably the best year of my career.

“As an individual, I could probably count on one hand the amount of bad decisions or bad games that year I had that year. I think I got nine goals and it went so, so well.”

Jones arrived from Wednesday on the final day of July 2012, with fire in his belly after being released by the club he supported, mere days after securing automatic promotion back to the Championship.

Boss Dean Saunders immediately handed him the captaincy, seeing him replace former Owls team mate Tommy Spurr.

“I was the captain for every club I played for so it was the norm for me and something that I got used to over a length of time,” Jones said.

“I think the fact that it came very quickly after I arrived, it was a shock to many people.

“Tommy was in the interim at that moment in time. The manager did what he did and said ‘you’re the captain now, that’s it.’

“I had a conversation with Tommy. We had a good relationship with him being left back and me left centre half.

“Tommy was fine with it. I think he was disappointed that he was no longer captain but understand decisions have to be made in football and that was the gaffer’s choice of how he wanted to move forward.

“There was no real conversation with the gaffer. It was just a decision that he made and that was it.

“I’d had it previously with Gary Megson at Wednesday - I found out through Twitter that I was captain and then Gary spoke to me the day after.”

Jones’ task, along with boss Saunders, was to bring together a hastily assembled group into a squad that would challenge for promotion.

The ‘Experiment’ of the previous season involving the temporary signings of disparate players from across the globe was disastrous, decimating morale among those who were at the club before and after that campaign.

It also destroyed the continuity that existed at the club, leaving Saunders with only nine senior players to start pre-season. The former Wales international himself played in the first friendly at Cleethorpes Town.

But, to Saunders’ credit, he built a very strong squad with a clear vision of how his side would play in order to win promotion straight back to the Championship.

Jones believes the desire for success in the group was a real driving force for the success that would follow.

“It was a group that was easy to lead and to manage,” the 40-year-old said.

“They all had strong desire and a point to prove.

“For me it was having been released from Sheffield Wednesday after being promoted the year before.

“All those ingredients made it easy for myself as captain to try to motivate.

“You look at them - Jamie McCombe was a leader and had been a captain before.

“Tommy was obviously captain before, Neil Sullivan had played at the highest level for the vast majority of his career.

“Chris Brown was a leader, Billy Painter was a leader. James Coppinger took over the captaincy when I left and if you ever want to know what Doncaster is all about, you ask him because he’s Doncaster through and through.

“There were many leaders in there. David Cotterill, Paul Quinn.

“We had a group that knitted very well together.”

Having skippered the side into a strong position at the turn of the year, Jones found himself being asked to step into a managerial role alongside Brian Flynn after Saunders was poached by Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He said the characteristics of the squad, along with the groundwork put in over the previous few months, ensured it was a simple transition.

“There was that mutual respect between all of us,” he said.

“There was never really a voice raised. I can only really remember Crawley away where there was a voice raised towards individuals, but that's another story.

“We all knew what we were doing. The job was set.

“Dean, before he went to Wolves, had us playing in a way that we all understood and we never veered away from that. The catalyst of how we were set up.

“Really, when I took over with Brian, it was just a case of continuing that and trying to squeeze as much out of every individual player as possible.

“When you have players that want to buy into what you do and want to move forward with the same goal and the same outcome, it makes it so much easier.”

That outcome was achieved as Rovers were promoted as champions, thanks to the incredible heroics on the final day of the season at Brentford.

But again, there was little opportunity for Rovers to build. Paul Dickov, hand-picked by chairman John Ryan, was quickly in place as the new manager and put in place a different philosophy to the one which had taken Rovers up.

Under Dickov however, Rovers made a good fist of survival in the second tier and were ultimately only relegated in the final seconds of the last day of the season.

“The following season, we knew it was going to be difficult,” Jones said.

“We had a new manager, a new structure, a new way of playing, new players and some players that helped us get there left, which is never nice when people move on.

“Big Lee Butler, the goalkeeping coach, who was the main character in the dressing room during that promotion season, he left to go to Bradford.

“There was lots of upheaval, players moving on, others coming in.”

The captain would make only 14 appearances that season - and 11 the next - thanks to a severe neck injury that almost called time on his career.

“Unfortunately, I got injured after 13 games and it was the worst injury of my career,” he said.

“At one point I thought I’d never come back from it.

“I had five months out and at that stage of my career, it wasn’t a good time. When you’re younger, you go quicker and when you’re older you don’t recover quite as well.

“It takes you longer to get back into the shape you were before.

“It was brilliant to get back to the Championship but really disappointing for me that I couldn’t play my part on the pitch.

“I was away from the training ground for a long time because I just couldn’t do anything.

“To go down on the last day of the season in the manner we did was just gut wrenching.”

Though he got himself back to fitness for the start of the 2015/16 season, Jones would soon step back into the managerial role following the sacking of Dickov.

The spell in charge - widely considered an audition for the job on a permanent basis - did not go well, with only a win over local rivals Barnsley to come from the six game run.

Darren Ferguson was appointed manager, which proved to be the beginning of the end of Jones’ time at the Keepmoat.

“Paul departed and I took over in the interim and I wasn’t training at all at that point,” he said. “It was tough for me.

“The new manager came in and it was clear straight away that I wasn’t part of his plans.

“That happens in football. You just get on with it.

“Thanfully I went on to play for a firend of a friend at Hartlepool for the rest of the season and enjoyed it.

“Like many older footballers, once you get one injury then you get another and another and it becomes difficult and mind-numbing to try to pick yourself up.

“It’s not good for anyone.

“It was time in that season to say enough was enough and that I’d put my body through more than enough.

“Thankfully I’d been doing my coaching badges along the way.

“It was important for me that I left the game healthy and having my badges gave me something to try to cut my teeth in afterwards.”

Though he has refrained from pushing for his first management job in the three years since his retirement, Jones has been an active coach and is currently working in Middlesbrough’s age group set up.

But he feels now is the time for him to reignite his goal to take on the top job.

“I never shied away from that,” he said.

“Whatever level it comes, I will throw everything I have at it.

“I’d like to think I could be successful because I’ve learned an awful lot over the last few years.

“I’ve been away from the football and spent a lot of time with my children, which has been great.

“Now I’m looking to get back in and move on with the next phase of my career.”

As he looks to the future, Jones admits he hoped to leave Rovers on a more positive note than being frozen out under Ferguson.

But he still holds a tremendous amount of affection for the club.

He said: “I think it would have been much nicer to have finished in what you would consider the right way. Everyone wants to go out on their own terms.

“It doesn’t happen like that very often in football.

“I dare say that if I’d stayed until the end of the season I’d have retired then.

“I would have liked to have said goodbye in my own way because the supporters of the club had been great to me.

“I don’t bear grudges. It happens and it will have happened to hundreds more people.

“You just get on with it. Don’t dwell on the past and look to the future.

“It’s a club that was really good for me and I hope that I was good for them too.

“We went through a journey with lots of ups and downs, some real success and not too many bad days.

“It was a great club for me.

“The biggest thing was that the fanbase took to me straight away, which was really nice.

“I’ve not been back in the stands since I left, which is not great.

“But I’m going to make an effort before the middle of next season to try to get to as many games as possible.”

The final word from Jones is on the characteristics of a good captain.

“It’s not for everybody,” he said.

“That responsibility is not for everyone. Some players like to just concentrate on their own game alone but as a captain you’ve got to concentrate on your game and everyone else’s as well, trying to get the focus of what the manager wants.

“It’s about instilling that in training and in games, making sure the game plan is stuck to and you’ve also got to lead by example, whatever is happening.”

Of all attributes, leading by example is central. And Jones undoubtedly took care of that at Rovers.

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