Walsall visit the Keepmoat Stadium this evening...
Walsall head coach Sean O’Driscoll is set to face his old club Doncaster tonight for the first time since leaving the Keepmoat Stadium in 2011.The 58-year-old spent five years in charge of Rovers, where he won promotion from League One via the play-offs during the 2007/08 season.
O’Driscoll also established the South Yorkshire outfit in the Championship and lifted the Football League Trophy in 2007.
Tonight, though, he will be plotting Doncaster’s downfall as he returns to his former stomping ground for the first time as an opposition manager.
And speaking ahead of the match, O’Driscoll says he is fully focused on helping Walsall get three points in our race for promotion.
“I’ve been back there since and things move on in football,” said O’Driscoll, who managed a ‘Doncaster Legends’ side at James Coppinger’s testimonial last year.
“You can’t keep looking back in the past, you’ve got to focus on what’s happening now.
“They’re a different team, with a different manager and different people running it.
“We need three points – that has to be the focus.
“They didn’t play on Saturday so we’ve got that added disadvantage of patching our troops together while they’ve had some extra days rest.
“But we’ll be going up there to try to get a result.”
Despite not playing in League One on Saturday, Walsall remain in third place after promotion-rivals Burton, Gillingham and Coventry all lost.
A victory over Darren Ferguson’s Doncaster tonight will lift the Saddlers up to second in the division.
And O’Driscoll says his side must take care of their own business – rather than rely on results elsewhere.
“Players might look at results and the different permutations but you can’t rely on anyone else in the league,” he said.
“For us, we’ve got to concentrate on what we can do and the squad we’ve got.
“We’ll be looking to get as much out of them now for the remaining part of the season.
“We need to become a team that are decent on the ball, can create chances but are extremely hard to beat.”
Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge is a major doubt for tonight’s match after cutting his knee in Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round defeat at Reading.
Midfielder Isaiah Osbourne is out with a knee injury.