'I saw the growth of him every single day' - Steve Eyre's backing for Doncaster Rovers' rookie boss Gary McSheffrey

And he has backed the 39-year-old to carve out a successful career in management.

Former Manchester City youth coach Eyre arrived at Rovers in early March to bolster the club’s coaching staff. He has since been promoted to assistant manager, replacing Frank Sinclair who has returned to working with the academy.

McSheffrey’s managerial inexperience is cause for concern among some supporters as Rovers look to bounce back from relegation to League Two.

But Eyre has backed the former Coventry City and Birmingham City striker to prove his doubters wrong.

"I was very aware of what a talented footabller he was and how popular he was as a teammate,” Eyre told Rovers’ media team.

"As a development coach he was given this opportunity and I think he’s taken to it really well.

"I think the exciting thing for him and the football club is that he’s very much in the potential phase himself - like a lot of the players.

"I saw the growth of him every single day in terms of his leadership, his coaching, his managing and his man-managing. That makes it very easy for me to support him, as well as the other staff.

"Hopefully they’ll recognise that I will have my own ideas, my own iniatives and I can lead whenever they want me to but ideally I’m here just to support a young manager who I think has a great future in the game.”

Rovers handed youth team manager McSheffrey his first job in senior management following Richie Wellens’ dismissal in December.

He took over with Rovers second bottom in the table with 13 points from 19 games. They finished third bottom with 38 points, two adrift of safety.

EFL pundit Ali Maxwell has said he fears Rovers ‘could be eaten alive’ in League Two due to the inexperience of McSheffrey and newly-appointed head of football operations James Coppinger.