Doncaster Rovers ready for a very different friendly to start pre-season programme

Doncaster Rovers will visit Scunthorpe United today away from the gaze of supporters, the media and anyone keen to get a glimpse how they are faring on their return to training.

The continued strict social distancing restrictions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have Rovers kicking off their pre-season programme of matches behind the tightest of closed doors.

It must be this way of course. The priority for all clubs in the bottom two tiers is simply to get playing again, by any means necessary.

But beyond the restrictions governing who can and cannot be present, it will not be the typical pre-season outing.

The players on the pitch will have been back in training for a couple of weeks. Prior to that, they had not been together for five months.

So neither Darren Moore, nor his Iron counterpart Neil Cox - appointed earlier this month - will be looking for blistering performances from their sides.

Shaking off considerable rust will be the order of the day.

“It’ll be very different,” Moore said.

“What I want from it is for people to come through unscathed. We’ll have two teams, each getting 45 minutes, and I just want the team to come through unscathed.

“I want them to get used to the football-specific movements, get their timing right, the contact on the ball and to refocus and realign with the movements.

“With the time they’ve had off, it’s been a long time so it’s about finding the rhythm, the timing and getting rid of the rustiness. That will start on Saturday.”

An out of the ordinary to kick start a far from normal pre-season.

The whole Rovers squad were permitted to work together for the first time only on Thursday - 11 days into pre-season - due to process of returning safely under Covid-19.

With the first game of the campaign only three weeks away, Moore knows time is precious as he looks to get his players into the right physical condition to stand up to the demands of the most relentless season in living memory.

And he says every second counts in the build-up to the start of the season.

“We’ve just got to try to get out as much from this five weeks as we can,” Moore said.

“We’ll get on with it. It’s not ideal but we’ll get out of it as much as we can.

“There’s probably things I’m going to have to be patient with over the course of the time. I’ve got to be patient and allow them to come up and not get frustrated with them.

“I’m going to have to give them time to reach certain levels.

“You’ve got look at the players individually and the squad as a whole. Certain dynamics that you’re working with, if they’re not there from the start then you have to persevere with them and believe over a length of time they will come.

“That will be a challenge for me as a manager that I’ve got to see.

“We’ll be putting in as much work as we can in the time that we’ve got to get in the best possible condition for the start of the new campaign.

“Every single day and minute matters now because time is so limited. In terms of building and trying to get as much in without physically breaking the players.

“Now work will really start to pick up now they’re a group together as one.

“There will be double sessions involved next week along with the games.”

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