Doncaster Rovers boss responds to calls to play Tommy Rowe further forward

Rowe has been deployed at left-back in recent weeks despite starting the season in midfield, where he was expected to play this term.

The influential club captain fulfilled a defensive role last season, owing in part to injuries and other players’ struggles for form, but still managed eight goals in all competitions.

Asked if he wants to play Rowe further forward, Rovers chief McSheffrey said: "Ideally, but we got to Northampton away and we thought we needed one of our top players to nullify one of their main threats.

"We go there, he plays excellent and we get a win. So it’s hard then to come away from that.

"We’ve had a chat about things. Tommy has to play where best suits the team.

"We know he’s effective wherever he plays, he would definitely get more opportunities higher up the pitch but ultimately we need to pick teams to win games."

James Maxwell was brought in over the summer to fill the left-back vacancy and started the season as first-choice in that position.

But he was hooked at half-time against Salford City last month and has only appeared as a substitute since.

McSheffrey said: “He was chucked in. He only had half a pre-season with us.

"He did well initially and then there were a few occasions where I felt we leaked a couple of goals from that side.

"We brought him out of the firing line. We brought him off the pitch a couple of times, which coincided with us getting back into games.

"Sometimes you have to dip someone’s toe out to freshen them up and recharge.

"He’s only young, he’s got loads of time on his side and he’ll get loads of games for the club.

"He needs to just knuckle down, get his head down, keep working hard and he’ll get a chance.”

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McSheffrey wants better organisation from his players after labelling Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat to Barrow “a total performance of ill-discipline.”

He said: “Wherever Tommy plays, wherever anyone else plays, we spoke about being disciplined in the structure of the team.

"We lacked that in abundance on Tuesday.

”Going forward, that shouldn’t be the case because we feel we’ve got quite a few points this year from having a good structure and a good work-ethic.

"When you start probably thinking you’re a bit better than that we’ve been punched on the nose a couple of times."

Doncaster’s only effort on target against the Bluebirds came from Rowe when he popped up in the penalty box unmarked before hitting a tame effort at the keeper.

At the other end of the pitch Barrow continuously exploited wide areas on the counter attack as Rovers committed players forward in search of a goal.

McSheffrey added: "We need to get back to the basics we do well.

"Wherever Tommy plays he needs to bring his A game, which a lot of the time he does, and he needs to be really disciplined with the shape of the team.”

Meanwhile, last weekend’s postponed clash against Hartlepool United has been rearranged to Tuesday, 4 October (7.45pm kick-off).