Doncaster Rovers can do something they haven’t done in 124 years when they take on Leicester City this weekend
Doncaster Rovers are looking to make it three league wins on the bounce this weekend
Doncaster Rovers have an opportunity to achieve something they haven’t managed for well over a century when they make the trip to face an out-of-form Leicester City side in League One this weekend.
The Foxes, who were many bookmakers pre-season favourites for an immediate return to the Championship, currently find themselves in 17th position with nine points from their opening eight games, leaving manager Russell Martin under extreme pressure at this moment in time.
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It’s a start which reflects the dramatic downfall of a team that was winning a Champions League match against FC Copenhagen almost 10 years to the day of their fixture against Doncaster Rovers this weekend, while also finishing eighth in the Premier League just five seasons ago in the same campaign which saw the Vikings drop down to League Two.
Rovers have enjoyed wins over Leicester when the two sides were both most recently in the Championship. They claimed a 1-0 win at the Keepmoat after a howler from Kasper Schmeichel in 2013 while a Billy Sharp brace also helped Rovers to a 2-1 victory in DN4 back in 2011.
But they’ve had a lot less success when travelling to the East Midlands. In fact, fans have to go back more than a century for their last victory away at Leicester, at a time when the club didn’t even have the same name they have today.
The fixture, according to club historian John Coyle took place in December 1902 in the second-tier when Rovers secured a 1-0 win against Leicester Fosse at Filbert Street thanks to a goal from Arthur Pyle. It was 17 years before the Foxes changed their name to Leicester City.
Since then Leicester has been anything but a happy hunting ground for Rovers. In fact, other than a 0-0 draw in February 2010 between Sean O’Driscoll and Nigel Pearson’s teams, the South Yorkshire side have lost all of their matches on the road against the Foxes.
This weekend’s clash presents a good opportunity for Grant McCann’s side to end that record. Especially when considering the club’s recent improvement and Leicester’s sluggish start, with their most recent match seeing them fall to a 3-1 loss to Robbie Savage’s Peterborough in front of their own supporters.