Doncaster Rovers assistant Steve Eyre reveals what’s in store for pre-season amid ‘fresh start’

Pre-season training gets under way at Cantley Park on Monday as Rovers prepare for the start of the 2022/23 League Two campaign on the weekend of Saturday, 30 July.

“We want the lads to feel newness, we want it to feel like a fresh start,” said Eyre, who joined Gary McSheffrey's coaching team in March before being promoted to the role of assistant boss last month.

"I don’t believe we should park up last season completely, I think we need to use it as fuel.”

Doncaster dropped out of the third tier last term for the second time in six years amid a decline on the pitch since Darren Moore’s departure which has seen the team win just 17 of their last 77 matches.

Former Manchester City youth coach Eyre continued: "I don’t think you should just dismiss it and let it dissolve. It should be stripped back and put in a draw, but equally I want the lads to come in and recognise a newness around the training ground, a new feel.

"It could be anything like aroma, it could be a different time slot.

“But I certainly want them to see new practices that recognise we recognise last year wasn’t good enough and the very minimum we will be doing this year is everything to get the club back to where it was just, and then hopefully further and beyond.”

Fresh faces on Monday will include new signing Harrison Biggins following his move from Fleetwood Town, as well as ‘a couple’ of trialists, including a left-back.

Boss McSheffrey wants to add ‘three or four bits of quality’ in the transfer window.

Doncaster currently have 21 players on their books for next season.

Asked what’s in store over the next six weeks, Eyre, who has been coaching for 30 years, replied: "We will have some innovative ideas that the lads won’t have done before, but we’ll also have some hard old-school values that I think will be tried and tested forever and a day and should never leave football.”