Doncaster Rovers to go 'full throttle' against Morecambe in search of first win

That was Richie Wellens’ firm response when he was asked this week if his squad had now caught up fitness-wise.

A bout of Covid in the camp during pre-season meant Rovers have been playing catch-up in getting players up to speed during the early part of the season.

A raft of injuries has made it even tougher for Wellens to gel his almost entirely new squad.

But, with his side propping up League One and hunting a much-needed win against newly-promoted Morecambe on Saturday, the Rovers boss says the time for excuses is over.

"No more excuses,” he told the Free Press.

"There’s only probably Matt Smith, who has had Covid and, when I look at his intensity and acceleration, he’s probably still suffering a little bit from it.

"Apart from that, no more excuses.

"Apart from Jon Taylor, Fejiri Okenabirhie and Cameron John, we’ve got a decent enough squad to start winning football matches.”

Wellens has promised his side will go ‘full throttle’ at the Shrimps after adopting a mid-block at Wigan in an attempt to contain one of the early pacesetters.

He said: "The message this week is to go for it, to be expressive, to bomb forward, to get numbers in the box, to pass forward, to run forward, if you’ve got space to drive into we drive, suck people in and play around them.

"We trained today [on Wednesday] and it’s been really good.

"We’re going to go full throttle at the weekend. We’re not going to sit off like we did at Wigan because obviously we’ve got another week’s training into Jordy Hiwula and Joe Dodoo.

"We can pick a team now where everyone is in the right position.

"Rodrigo Vilca has trained really well and he comes into contention and all of a sudden we look like we’ve got some good options.”

Captain Tom Anderson is available again after recovering from an ankle injury and Aidan Barlow could return after a hamstring problem. Cameron John, Jon Taylor and Fejiri Okenabirhie remain sidelined.