Doncaster Rovers boss Gary McSheffrey has admitted to the Doncaster Free Press there will be some rotation when the two sides meet this evening, and he’s given a glimpse into the future as well.
The two teams meet in the League Cup this evening, with £5000 and the potential of a glamour tie at stake. On September 20, the teams meet again in the EFL Trophy, where there’s £10,000 up for grabs. As we haven’t beaten Doncaster since 2004, are we likely to get any of our grubby mitts on the money? Bear in mind they’re in League Two; we should be getting a result, but we said that earlier this year, and we got beaten 1-0.
Gary McSheffrey has certainly thrown us a bit of a lifeline in one of those competitions with his comments. However, the former Coventry City striker intends to take tomorrow night very seriously. “The Carabao Cup is an opportunity to get a good draw and play against Premier League and Championship teams in the next round,” McSheffrey said. “It’s one we take serious. There will be a bit of squad rotation, but ultimately they will be coming in as players who can handle it.”
That could mean minutes at the Keepmoat for former Imps defender Tom Anderson, experienced striker Kieran Agard and Liam Ravenhill, son of former Donny midfielder Ricky. They’ve all been on the bench and have minimal minutes under their belt this season. For more on the game, do make sure you check out our preview piece here.
When it comes to the EFL Trophy, one we won in 2018 and one that offers £20,000 for taking part and £10,000 per group stage win, McSheffrey is doing things differently. It seems he’s written it off as an exercise for young players, which might mean an easier passage when they visit the Bank. “We will have the approach of giving minutes to our players that we feel need developing – young players that need game time and need to experience playing at the stadium,” he said, with Newcastle Under 21s their first opponents on August 30th.
How we’re going to approach those games is yet to be made clear, but with many senior players needing minutes, we’re likely to have some fairly high-profile players wanting minutes, and hopefully, we can get beyond the group stages once more. Let’s just hope if we do, we don’t give the knockout stage tie away as we did at Carlisle last season.
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