'How I went from working at Amazon to my dream job on the first team staff at Doncaster Rovers'

Indeed, life's pretty good right now for Tom Malkin. A lifelong Doncaster Rovers fan, the 29-year-old is an important part of a tight-knit backroom team at Cantley Park.

His role as assistant first team performance analyst is one that not too many fans will either know much about nor probably appreciate the importance of. On matchdays at the Eco-Power he can be seen high up in the West Stand poring over footage whilst flanked by head of analysis Ryan Simpson and usually either Lee Glover or James Coppinger.

In essence, the job of those in the analysis department is to pore over hours and hours of footage and drill it down into bitesize chunks that can be easily relayed to the first team squad - among many other things.

"It's quite a varied role, and week to week things change," Tom admits in a chat with the Free Press.

"For example we can take four or five of our games and turn them into maybe 15-minute video segments for each identified compartment. As a staff we then sit down and it gets whittled down even further. Ryan then shows that to players in meetings.

"We try to take the bittiness out of it. To get 30-odd players to sit down and watch a whole game, there's probably not as much value in that as there is in us saying here's what we've identified and this is how we plan on combatting it. Everything is on a quick turnaround too, which makes it challenging!"

Tom's path to his current role has been far from straightforward or orthodox. He worked a series of manual jobs including at Amazon warehouse in Doncaster and in grounds maintenance for a local council.

"I just thought this isn't for me. There was no progression." he says.

He then took a leap of faith and started studying a sport and exercise technology degree as a somewhat mature student, aged 23.

He admits to being a "slow-burner" initially: "Maybe my brain took a while to adapt from manual work back to academic."

The course would be affected by the coronavirus outbreak which Tom says actually aided him in the sense that he used it to not only play catch-up but also get serious about what new career path he wanted to go down.

A series of placements within a boxing environment followed before a speculative chat with Rovers eventually led him to where he is today. He spoke to Tony Cook, Rovers' former academy manager, who told him he'd be in touch. After a few weeks of no response Tom began to think it wasn't going to amount to anything. But then out of the blue he was asked to come in on the Friday.

"I remember the lads were out training. We had a chat and Copps was there too and I just got told to come in Monday and I've been here ever since!"

Whilst analysis is his main area of concern at Rovers, he credits the club for encouraging his own self-development in other areas. He regularly goes out to games when time allows to scout opposition players - something he's seemingly had an eye for since a young age.

"Sometimes, and I'm talking when I was about 14, when I went to games I'd take a notebook and make my own notes on players!

"People would sometimes ask 'what you taking notes for?' but I just enjoyed doing it for my own learning and to note movements, patterns etc. I love it and feel like it came naturally.

"You can't write everything down so you have to take the key bits out of it. You look at things that look like they're rehearsed and repeatable as opposed to things off-the-cuff. It's distinguishing between the two which is probably where the skill is to be honest."

He also makes no secret of his love of coaching. He undertakes sessions at New College Doncaster where he works alongside former Rovers player and Belles boss John Buckley.

"That's been really good for my development," he adds. "I take the second team and it's always rewarding when a player comes through and you can develop them and see them then shine for the first team.

"I like trying new things and in my coaching style I try new things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. The college environment for trying that is perfect because you can act off the cuff. You have to think on the spot and sometimes the constraints that you're given actually allow you to be more creative when designing sessions."

First team manager Grant McCann is a big advocate of the work the analysis department do, and often refers to them as his 'eyes in the sky' on a matchday. The Northern Irishman says he was immediately impressed by Tom upon his return to DN4 in the summer of 2023, so much so that he got the club to sort a better contract for him.

"Tom's a really, really down-to-earth kid who's Doncaster through and through," McCann said. "You can see how big a fan he is of the club and I love that, I really do.

"He just wants to get better and learn and find out everything. He's a great person to have around. One of the first things I did actually was to get Tom a new deal to put him on more money and show him the appreciation that we have for him really. He's one of many who just want to get better and be the best he can be."

Of course, the overriding aim this season for Rovers is promotion back to League One. If that is achieved then the players and McCann's coaching staff will take the vast majority of the credit but those behind-the-scenes will have also played their parts.

That includes Tom, for whom success this season would mean that little bit more with it being his club.

"It's my boyhood club," he concludes. "I've been lifted over the turnstiles at Belle Vue, I've seen us get promoted at Brentford, seen us play Man City, Arsenal etc.

"I know people get high and low with wins and losses but for me I do feel as though there's more on it. I bleed red-and-white.

"We've built up some real momentum here and it's nice to be even just a small part of it."