When Doncaster Rovers won promotion via the play-offs last season, manager Sean O'Driscoll vowed to keep on playing the 'beautiful' game.

His side pulled off a shock victory at Derby County on the opening day and the Rovers bandwagon looked ready to keep on rolling.

Now the optimism that filled the August air has evaporated, replaced instead by fear of an immediate return to League One. Rovers are seven points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Championship table having picked up just one point from the last 30 available. O'Driscoll is a manager under pressure and his players were booed off the field after the midweek defeat to Barnsley.

Reluctantly, O'Driscoll has ruled that a different style of football is needed to survive; 'organisation and discipline' are his new buzz words.

According to a recent study, 'Donny' are the biggest 'over-achievers' in football since the dawn of the Premier League – a title based on crowds, investment, transfer fees, and results. Achievements, of course, lead to heightened expectations which is why O'Driscoll, perhaps unfairly, now needs to improve things fast.

It doesn't help knowing that tomorrow's opponents Swansea City, who also won promotion last season, are coping far better with the step up. The Welsh club suffered a first loss in six games against Wolves in midweek but are still only two points adrift off the play-off zone.

"We have been slowly coming to terms with the way that this division is played and the way that we have got to adapt to it," said O'Driscoll. "Our form is not a concern, but results are.

"If there was a magic wand, we would have been waving it four or five weeks ago, but there isn't," he added. "We have been getting 99.9 per cent of the things right on a Saturday or a Tuesday night but the little things have let us down.

"Organisation and discipline are probably the by-words for the Championship," he said. "It is something that we have learned pretty quickly. Of the teams we have played, there is no one that has really stood out by playing fantastic football.

"But everybody is organised, everybody is disciplined and everybody, because of the nature of the division, feels if they can put a run together, they have got a chance of hitting the big time, so nobody really wants to take a chance."

Financially, Rovers are no longer at the top of end of their respective league which means competing for the best players available is a far harder task.

Chairman John Ryan said: "We are not really on a level playing field and it could be said we are boxing above our weight.

"When we won the League Two championship, the wage bill was only £800,000 and now it's nearer £5m. The board and its major shareholders have subsidised the club through a share issue in excess of £2m and fans must realise it's so much different for us playing against clubs who have had £12m parachute payments coming down from the Premier League or playing in front of 20,000 gates."

Ryan, however, is still convinced Rovers will stay up this season due to the quality of the players acquired over the last two years and O'Driscoll's ability to gel them into a winning side.

Inside the dressing room, too, there is no shortage of belief.

Defender Sam Hird understands why O'Driscoll has decided to tinker with his approach.

"The reason we have changed the system is because, as a team, we were playing well but we were getting exposed a lot once we had lost the ball. Now we feel a lot more solid although we are sacrificing something going forward. We are bottom of the league but we know that we are not playing that bad."

Those turning up to cheer on Rovers tomorrow will not mind how badly the team plays. Just as long as they win.