Doncaster Rovers: Darren Moore calls for right mentality heading into ‘rare’ league game

Cup football may be set to dominate the agenda for Doncaster Rovers over the next few weeks but Darren Moore is determined to keep his players’ mindset right for league action.
Darren MooreDarren Moore
Darren Moore

Rovers’ trip to Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday will be their only League One fixture in a one month spell due to match postponements and cup outings.

Moore has spoken regularly of the disruptive nature of the fixture calendar this term, having endured three blank weekends in the opening three months of the campaign.

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Rovers will fit in postponed matches against Tranmere Rovers and Shrewsbury Town, plus potentially the controversial clash with Bolton Wanderers, with the EFL yet to confirm the decision of an independent panel on the fate of the fixture.

And Moore is keen to ensure his players remain focused on whatever task is put ahead of them over the coming weeks.

“The biggest thing we have spoken about here is keeping the mindset and mentality right for these games because there is nothing you can do," Moore told the Free Press.

“You can’t moan. It is what it is.

“It does disrupt training. It’s different for when you offload players, or when you put work into them.

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“It has been a stop-start season through no fault of our own.

“But we still maintain to try to keep our standard high, our focus up and our perspective right in terms of approaching games.

“Every game we play, Doncaster Rovers want to try to put a wholehearted performance in for the football club because that is what we’re here to do.

“We work every single day to achieve that and there is not a day that goes by when we don’t look for an outcome in terms of training.

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“That won’t stop at all this season and we guarantee that we will do that.

“In terms of games being called off, cup games, league games – we’re through to the second round of the Leasing.com Trophy which is great for the club to be still in two cup competitions.

"And we lie mid-table in League One having had four games called off already this season.

“If we'd have had those games, who knows where we would be.

“We wait to see where the EFL will pitch those three games in. What we don’t want is those games push us into the winter months and a couple more games are called off because you end up with a fixture pile up.

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“Then we’ll see how we manage that with the squad that we've got.

“I can’t cry over spilt milk. All I can do is look to the next game against a top of the table team on Saturday and make sure that we're right for that one on Saturday.”