Confient Cotterill

Last year we saw new signing David Cotterill getting the most assists for the whole of League 1 with 20 and scoring 10 goals, many of which were wonderful, funny enough the player that finished 2nd in the assist table was Scunthorpe United player Mark Duffy on 15. However, he has been unable to continue this during the current season, we look at why the Welsh International has been struggling. I mentioned this in my article about how this season has been difficult for him, you can read other difficulties the team has faced here.

Firstly let's remind ourselves what Cotterill brought to the team last year......

There is no doubting his brilliance and skill. He can bring a lot to the team and certain help the team win a good number of points over the season. Recently David has had a revival in form, and starting to show he can do it at this Level. We all knew he had the class, but grew frustated with him, many people used him as a scape goat, wrongfully.

He has scored recently against Huddersfield and Leeds, but more importantly, his game has improved. His best assest are his shooting, passing, crossing and dead balls. And according to Paul Dickov, David stays behind at the end of training to work on these. So for those questioning his attitude, should take note.

So why has he had this revival?
In my opinion, it is all due to confidence, David is a confidence player, last season we saw him at high confidence and he was unstoppable, however he lost his confidence mid this season. The reason for this probably lies with Paul Dickov, who has recently gave David a run of games in the team. Another reason could be do to with Billy Sharp, as someone had pointed out on the VSC forum.
Billy's presence does bring out good form in those around him, you only need to look at Cotts and Copps to see the effect of this.

David is out of contract at the end of the season, has he done enough to earn a new one, well providing he isn't after mega bucks, I do believe he has done enough, and still at the age of just 26 has many years ahead of him, I think a 2 year contract would be ideal. And ofcourse there are always those people that believe his good form is a result of his near ending contract, but if you gave these people 5 pound, they would moan that it isn't 10. From watching David all season, you could see he was low on confidence, we witness the same with James Coppinger, he goes through stages where his performances drop due to low confidence, and then when his regains his confidence, he is unstoppable.

I really think David is an important player, people should lay off him and credit him. Thankfully I have seen one or two go back on their word, hold their hands up and admit they made a mistake.

Forgotten Rovers: Jon Paul Pittman

Former Aston Villa youngster, can you remember him at Rovers?
Well you probably can't, certainly didn't make much of an impact at the Keepmoat.

Rovers signed Jon Paul Pittman on a short term contract, from Nottingham Forest in January 2007 as a 20 year old. Despite never making a league appearance for Forest, he had made 2 appearances in cups, he also had loan spells at Hartlepool and Bury.

As a youngster, he had shown signs of promise, and the American born striker was also known in parts of his native country as his progress and career has been discussed on a number of American soccer forums, especially under the subject of American players abroad. People who was familiar with his career saw his move to Doncaster, who were playing in League 1 at the time, as a chance to restart his career and move onto bigger and better things. Unfortunately it didn't really work out this way.

Jon-Paul's uneventful time at Doncaster saw him play for just 1 minute plus injury time, as he came on as a 89th minutes substitute, in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, against Darlington in the Northern semi final, a game in which we won 2-0 with goals from Paul Heffernan in the 54th minute and Jason Price in the 89th (Pittman came on following this goal).
Pittman did two things in his time on the field, he cleared the ball and fouled David Wheater.
We later went on to win the Trophy at the Millennium stadium. However, I think it is a long shot to say Jon-Paul's 1 appearance helped us win this.

Jon-Paul was also seen making 3 unused substitute appearances overseeing a win, lose and draw.

As expected, there was no contract extension following the expiry of his short deal at the end of the season and he left Rovers. He found himself a move to Crawley who were playing in the conference, this drop in league proved much more successful for him. Playing at the club between 2007 and 2009 he scored 22 goals in 61 appearances, his improved form also earned him a call up to the England C team, the non league national squad.

In 2009 former England national team caretaker manager Peter Taylor, who was managing Wycombe Wanderers at the time, places a successful 5 figure bid for Jon-Paul Pittman, and he signed at the end of January 2009. Jon had a good first season here, and helped the club achieve promotion into League 1. The following season the team was relegated back to League 2 with Jon scoring 7 goals.

With the team back in League 2 for the 2010-2011 season, he scored on the opening day however, he picked up an injury during September keeping him out for 6 months. Upon his return he played an important part in Wycombe's promotion and had an impressive record of scoring 4 goals in just 6 starts.

At the end of the season he was not offered a new contract and moved to Oxford United, his goal scoring record here was not impressive scoring just 6 goals in 30 appearances between 2 years. His time here also saw him make a return to previous club Crawley on a 3 month emergency loan.

At the end of the 2013 season, he was out of contract at Oxford, and returned to Wycombe where he plays now.

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Forgotten Rovers: Damien Plessis

January 2012 saw Rovers sign a number of players including three on the same day, Mamadou Bakayoko, Habib Bamogo and Damien Plessis. With all three coming in as part of the dreaded 'experiment'. 

The idea was these players were brought in by their agent Willie Mckay, be cheap for the club, help the club stay in the championship and boost the reputation of these players, putting them in 'the shop window' for a move to the Premiership. 

None of these players really made an impact, and will be quickly forgotten, however one player, many Rovers fans will find it hard to understand existed. 

Damien Plessis. Making a magnificent 0 appearances, in fact pop star Louis Tomlinson has had more of a playing infact, in fact a 52 year old has made more of an impact.

So who is he?

He is a towering, strong, defensive midfielder, the Frenchman was 15 when he was a highly rated talent. If you read an earlier article about failed talents I wrote, he would certainly fit into that list.

He began to be recognised whilst playing for Lyon's youth before a 2007 move to English giants, Liverpool. Manager Rafa Benitez holding him in high regard. In 2008 his impressive reserve team form earned him his first team debut.

This form also earned him international call up for the French u21 team, having previously been capped at u20, u19, u18 amd u17.

His career was certainly looking promising. However had tough competition for places with Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso.

In 2010 he joined Panathinaikos for an undisclosed fee, he was signed with lots of potential, however, he failed to impress his manager with poor performances. In July 2011 the Greek club allowed him to go on trial to Sven Goran Eriksson's Leicester City, however the former England manager cut this trial short due to Damien failing to impress. He was also rumoured to be in talks with 1860 Munich, however this came to nothing and he returned to Panathinaikos.

After 6 months he then came to the keepmoat on loan to try and resurrect his career. Or did he?

Well we have no idea if he actually found the keepmoat. 

All we saw of him was his signing picture along with Bomogo and Bakayoko. 

This was strange, especially considering at the time, a strong, towering defensive midfielder was well needed, but we never saw him.

I would love to talk more about his time at Rovers, but there is nothing more to say. We don't know why he never played, many of use a few years on, don't really care.

The fact that Chris Black played more games for Rovers then Plessis. 

Forgotten? Well it is easy to.

So where is he now?

As you can imagine, his time at Rovers did not re start his career and he didn't return to the Premiership. Instead he was released by Panathinaikos and signed for French Ligue 2 side, Arles-Avignon. 

Infact, he seemed to find his feet here, and played regularly making 40 appearances in 1 and a half seasons.

In January 2014 he moved to Swiss Super League side, Fc Lausanne-Sport.

So there you have it, Damien Plessis, forgotten Rover, however maybr this has been a waste of time as he never seemingly was here. Infact I have probably spent more time and put more effect into writting the badly written article, then Damien did for Rovers. And for that reason, be sure to give us a follow on twitter and facebook, share with friends and leave a comment. 

My honest opinion, maybe he already had the move to Ligue 2 lined up. But this is just an opinion. 

Thanks for reading.
As always I would like to here your thoughts on this subject.
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Best team since 2000

We will be running a vote on the side of the blog and in our forum....and based on your choices we will put together the best 11 players for Rovers since 2000. Below is the shortlist and basic information. The squad will be chosen in a 442 formation. The Voting will last for 2 weeks, and it will be a position at a time, starting with goalkeepers.

Goalkeepers
Andy Warrington - 196 appearances for this Rovers hero helping the club to 2 promotions
Neil Sullivan - Making 200 appearances for Rovers, first joining in 2006, known for his role in both League 1 promotions
Ross Turnbull - Only joined Rovers in 2013 but already a fans favorite, certainly kept many goals out.
Jan Budtz - Danish goalie became an instant hero when he replaced injured Andy Warrington against Man City, who we wen to to beat on penalties.

Right Backs
Simon Marples - making 151 appearances between 1999 and 2006.
James O'connor - Made 215 appearances for Rovers, winning player of the year in 09-10
Dave Mulligan -New Zeland international 77 appearances in his 2 season at Belle Vue

Centre Backs
Barry Miller - Captain miller, 70 appearances for Rovers
Adam Lockwood - 151 appearances in 6 years at the club.
Graeme Lee - Scoring the winning goal for the Johnstone's paint trophy
Jason Shackell - Had a successful loan spell with us
Rob Jones - Helped win League 1
Steve Foster - 116 appearances between 2002 and 2006
Mark Albrighton - Sarge made 86 appearances
Sam Hird - 145 appearances between 2007 and 2012

Left Backs
Gary Roberts - 141 appearances for us, scoring 8 goals
Tim Ryan - 181 appearances for Rovers between 2000 and 2006, and had previously been at the club.
James Husband - Youngster just 20 years old and already made 60 appearances
Tommy Spurr - Very solid left back, many sad to see him leave after his 2 years at the club
Sean Mcdaid - Spent 5 years at the club making 103 appearances.
George Friend  - A true Professional

Right Midfielder
Jason Price - Afro goal machine made 93 appearances at Rovers
Jamie Coppinger - Best remembered for his Southend Hattrick, closing in on his 400th game
David Cotterill - Had the most assists in the league in League 1 2012-2013
Jamie Paterson - The wee Scotsman

Centre midfield
John Doolan - making 84 appearances for Rovers
Sean Thornton - Many remember him for his goal V Aston Villa
Richie Wellens - Currently on his second spell at the club
Paul Green - Coming through the Youth, up to play for his country, made 236 appearances for Rovers
Paul Keegan - Joined in 2011, what he brings to the team is very important
Brian Stock - Making just under 200 appearances for Rovers between 06-12
Ricky Ravenhill - Local boy made 137 appearances
Mark Wilson - Spending 6 season at the club making 140 appearances

Left Midfield
Michael Mcindoe - Many fans favorite, 122 appearances for the club
Andy Watson - Made 86 appearances for the club
Matty Caldwell - Played during the conference years
Martin Woods - 118 appearances for Rovers

Strikers
Ian Duerdan - Get Duerden ON!
Gregg Blundell - 28 goals in 86 appearances
Francis Tierney- The golden goal
Billy Sharp - I'm pretty sure he needs no explanation
James Hayter - Scored the winner at Wembley, 33 goals in 162
Paul Heffernan - 35 goals in 128
Leo Fortune-West - LEO LEO!

If you feel I have missed someone, please let me know and I can add them!

The first voting starts today and will last for 2 weeks, check our twitter and facebook for updates when the next is out, you can also vote in our forum!
Link to forum

Difficult Season

After winning League 1 in the last seconds last season, winning promotion back into the championship, we knew we was going to have a difficult season to stay up, many of us said we would be happy finishing just above the relegation zone, a position in which we occupy today, however many seem unhappy at this, slating the squad and calling Dickov's head. There is still games to be played and points to be won, I for one will be happy if it finishes as it is, but why has this season been so difficult, for the players, the owners, the manager and us fans.

Well to answer these questions I think we need to take a look back to last summer and pre season.

Pre Season
With Brian Flynn stepping down from management and Rob Jones concentrating on playing, a new manager was needed. John Ryan and board gave the job to Ex Premiership striker and at the time, Oldham manager Paul Dickov. There was many rumors about with different names including Appleton, Saunders and many more, however Dickov was one of the few that I didn't mind, he was a great player, and still a young manager, his managerial record was hardly world class but it wasn't too bad. Paul came in and was seemingly promised 40 million pounds to build his squad. Now I don't wish to talk about the saga that followed in dept, but to be promised this would allow us to bring in players such as Sharp, Dunne and Ireland, all of which are top quality Championship players if not Premiership.
However this money didn't come, however, Paul still managed to bring in players such as Ross Turnbull, Mark Duffy, Harry Forrester and Khumalo. For this you have to give Paul and staff great credit, to whilst most of these players didn't have championship experience, they were all exciting prospects.
To put this in perspective, maybe this is like saying to a building 'build me a house on this millionaire road that is just as good as the rest' and only giving the building 250000 to do it with. The building, Dickov has still done a good job.

The pre season is supposed to be a time where the manager builds his squad and prepares for the season ahead, however it was these events that certainly interrupted this.

Injuries
Once again, injuries have played a massive part in making this season difficult. If you think back to last season, when we won, we wasn't always playing well but we had leaders on the pitch that got us through the game, most importantly Rob Jones. Unfortunately Rob's season is pretty much over, after what is a bad injury. And despite Dickov and board bringing in excellent players to replace him such as Meite, Rob has been massively missed. In the start of the season people questioned if he was good enough for this league, but what Rob brings to the team is leadership and unfortunately after watching on saturday, no one seems to do this half as good as Rob. We also need to remember when Rob first got injured this season around christmas when Khumalo was also out, we played with 2 centre backs 19 years of age. We certainly missed Rob then.

But it is not just Rob that we have missed, summer signing Harry Forrester has been virtually not seen all season, and will not be seen on the pitch until next year. He was signed with potential, and the type of player that could make a fair bit of difference.  Unfortunately picking up injury during pre season and only featuring for a hand full of games before picking up further injury has ruined his season.

Another player who has been injured for the majority of the season is David Cotterill, whilst not actually being injured, he has suffered from lack of confidence throughout the campaign, maybe a mental block at this level. Self admitted, he has not been at his best this year and despite often coming under alot of stick due to not working hard on the pitch, he was a major part in our promotion last season. Cotts got the most assists in League 1 last year and scored some beauties! Unfortunately he hasn't been able to continue this form this season and we have missed it. He is the type of player that doesn't need to do an awful lot all game before doing one thing magnificently which could win us the game.

Now injuries do happen, and to replace then Dickov has brought in good loanees this season, however we have been unlucky with some of these. Reece Warbara played a few games whilst still injured, Yun Suk Young returned to QPR injured, after been brought in to replace injured James Husband. Macheda, seemed to of brought his scoring boots however picking up an injury he returned to Manchester, unfortunately he left his boots at home when he returned to us.

Last night we learnt that Khumalo got taken off injured playing for South Africa against Brazil, he has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

It's Raining
Good form can give the whole squad a boost, and after a run of good results, the last thing you want is what happened at Charlton. After 3 games unbeaten picking up 7 points we took a 3-0 lead at the valley, only for the game to be 'controversially' called off with the scores at 3-1. Also with Paul Keegan being sent off for 2 bookable offenses. Now if you were at the game, you would off seen the Charlton ground staff working extremely hard to try and get the playing surface playable, in fact, they was working so hard that Theo Robinson and James Husband needed to help them. Now I can accept games do get called off, and this cannot be helped, but it certainly knocked our team a bit and we only picked up 3 points in our following 6 games. What is especially annoying is how when the game was replayed, the scores would be 0-0 however, Paul Keegan still had to serve a suspension. Now I would accept if the F.A rules said that the scores would be 0-0 and Paul's suspension is forgotten about, or we pick up where we left off with the scores at 3-1 and Paul serving suspension. We received a double punishment, and it wasn't even our pitch. What is worse, as SOD's law goes, Charlton beat us when the game was replayed...

John Ryan
Again, i'm not going to get into this in great detail, it has been discussed many times and we still don't know what officially happend. John Ryan is a hero, it is a great loss that he is no longer chairman, however, I feel the club is still safe with the current owners. My main concern is how the politics in the board room will of had a bad effect on the team, making the season even more difficult, it would of been better if both parties agreed to either wait until the close season, or shut up about the matter and try not to distract the team. We all saw the negative effect it had on us fans, i'm sure it affected the players too. I would of loved to give John Ryan a hero's exit and thank him for how he has saved the club, but the manner of which it was done, it is very hard to do that.

That is all I will say on the matter, yes John Ryan is still a legend, but the politics should of been kept away from the squad better.

Lack of Goals
I've seen a lot of people slating Dickov's formation. Especially away from home, now whilst I can see it hasn't been working hence the bad away form. I can understand Dickov, we don't score a lot of goals, and goals need to be scored to win games, therefore Dickov goes for the win because if the team plays defensive and a mistake is made and we go 1-0 down we will struggle to get back into the game so Dickov plays to score the first goal, however due to whatever reason, we haven't been scoring enough. And for the people slating his line up against Bournemouth, I'm sure Dickov like most of us, was expecting a win.

After reading this, I just hope a number of fans understand just how difficult the current season has been so far, it is not doom and gloom as a couple of good results and we could be safe from the drop, remember we can beat anyone in this league on our day, we have proved that this season, and no doubt we will spring a few shocks too.

Let's not get on the players backs or demand Dickov out, they are all trying to do what we want, and that is to stay in this league, so as supporters, we should be doing our bit, get behind the boys!

Thanks for reading, at the time of posting this we are just over 700 views on the blog which is excellent considering the blog is only a couple of months old! Thank you for that, remember to share the blog and 'like' and 'follow' us on facebook and twitter. Also, I know I have talked about this a lot, but I'm still looking for some contributors, any involvement is welcome, just drop me a quick email at thedonnypop@gmail.com