‘I love doing it’ – Owen Bailey on the work behind his Doncaster Rovers success and goals for the season

Doncaster Rovers’ derby day hero Owen Bailey has spoken about the benefits of seeing a sports psychologist and how it has helped him in his career so far.

The 27-year-old has been a revelation since joining Rovers on a free transfer in the summer of 2023. He has, remarkably, started every single league game since Grant McCann took charge and has been a pivotal figure in the club’s rise from League Two strugglers to an established League One outfit.

Bailey’s availability and his habit of scoring important goals has been a hallmark of the club’s success - leading to him being selected as captain in the summer of 2025, shortly after the club’s promotion to the third-tier.

He netted a career best 13 league goals last season - notably making it into the Team of the Season while also being nominated for the Player of the Year award.

Bailey, however, had only scored once prior to the Sheffield Wednesday game in this campaign, but admitted he wasn’t getting bogged down by the statistics due to the work he puts in off the pitch.

“I wasn't beating myself up, it was about kind of doubling down on what I do well and you know, making the right runs and kind of reviewing a lot of the work on the kind of mental side of the game and you know,” Bailey explained.

“ I think I've got a lot of help from the person I speak to and stuff. I think that's obviously helped and hopefully I can continue to get in the right places and get on the score sheet.”

Bailey, who scored twice against Sheffield Wednesday, added: “I'm in regular contact, obviously she'll have texted us today and spoken to me and my agent Andrew.

“He's the same, really big on the kind of mental side and that's something that I've really bought into. I feel like it's made a massive difference to my game, I love doing it and I enjoy it and you know, it's good for kind of blocking out the noise.

“ You can get kind of carried away with all sorts going on off the pitch but ultimately all it controls is what you do on that field and I think by working on that regularly and weekly and daily and all the rest of it, I think it only benefits me.”

Bailey’s double against Wednesday takes him up to three league goals for the season after he also found the net in a 2-2 draw at Stevenage back in August.

Speaking on objectives for the campaign, he added: “I want to try and get more than last season.

“I got 13 in the league last season so I want to just keep getting in the right areas and scoring goals and obviously two today, but hopefully I can build on that and create different systems and stuff and today was kind of more my regular role. Yeah, hopefully I can keep arriving late in the box and getting on the end of things.”