Ipswich Town entertain Doncaster Rovers at Portman Road tonight looking for that most precious first home win of the season. MIKE BACON looks at the visitors.
BASEMENT ROVERS
One win in eight and six league defeats, Doncaster Rovers arrive at Portman Road tonight bottom of League One.
Their solitary victory was a 1-0 win over Morecambe two weeks ago, Tommy Rowe netting the 81st minute winner. On Saturday, Donny made the long trek to Plymouth, only to be denied by Conor Grant's 92nd minute penalty. The Pilgrims' other goal was also a penalty in the 1-2 defeat.
It left Donny's boss Richie Wellens less than happy.
“They (Plymouth) wouldn’t have scored apart from a penalty or a counter attack,” he said.
"When you get to the Premier League they have VAR. They (referees) don’t change the momentum of the game. Referees at this level change the momentum."
MEET RICHIE
Doncaster boss Richie Wellens knows the south Yorkshire club well.
The midfielder played for Rovers in two spells, clocking up more than 150 appearances for them, and now he is the club's manager having joined them earlier this year from Salford City.
Wellens guided Salford to victory in the delayed 2020 EFL Trophy Final, with a 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory after a 0-0 draw with Portsmouth.
As a player he played most of his football in the Championship and League One and in 2010/11 was voted Leicester City's player of the year. He also won Doncaster's player-of-the-year in 2007/08.
Wellens had a short spell on loan at Town in 2012. He was at the club when Paul Jewell left and Chris Hutchings took over for a short time.
When Town lost 0-3 to Sheffield Wednesday in October 2012 under Hutchings, Wellens gave this assessment post-match: “A new manager needs to come in and put a rocket under their backsides because there are not enough people who show they care about losing.
“I have always thought of Ipswich as a nice club and that was confirmed when I got here. It is a little too easy, too cosy.”
HEAD TO HEAD
Town and Rovers first met in October 1954 in Division Two, the Blues running out 5-1 winners.
And it was 50 years before Donny finally got the better of the Blues, when they beat Town 2-0 in a League Cup clash in 2004.
Since that 2-0 win for Rovers, games between the two have been sporadic, the last one being in February earlier this year where Alan Judge's super free-kick and a poacher's goal from James Norwood helped Ipswich secure a narrow 2-1 victory.
Rovers substitute Jon Taylor reduced the arrears for the visitors who pressed hard for an equaliser but to no avail.
The result lifted Town to eighth spot in League One at the time, two points off the top six with games in hand.
THE BOOKIES
You wouldn't think Ipswich were just three points and three places ahead of Doncaster in the League One table - both in the relegation places - if you looked at the odds for this game. Town are hot favourites to record what would be their first league win at home this season.
Ipswich win: 4/5; Draw 13/5; Doncaster win 18/5
DID YOU KNOW?
A goldfish named Tish was won at a funfair in Doncaster in 1956. He died in 1999 aged 43. (This is not the fish pictured!)
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