Doncaster Rovers v Coventry City: Tommy Rowe aims to make it a family double at Wembley

For midfielder Tommy Rowe, the ugly arrived exactly six years ago today.

Wearing the colours of Peterborugh United, ironically Rovers’ big late-season rivals for a play-off place, Rowe was part of a Posh side who were relegated by an 89th-minute goal from Mile Jedinak in a bitter 3-2 reverse at Crystal Palace – on a day when a draw would have secured their second-tier status.

It was an occasion when the East Anglians were leading 2-1 with seven minutes to go.

Jedinak’s strike was the final act of a topsy-turvy day which ended with Posh’s relegation rivals Huddersfield Town and Barnsley playing out time at the end of their derby at the John Smith’s Stadium – akin to the infamous Anschluss World Cup game between Germany and Austria in 1982 – with both safe following news of Jedinak’s dramatic late goal.

Rowe’s team-mates James Coppinger and Andy Butler, who will also assume leadership roles later today, have also seen plenty of last-day high drama.

Coppinger, of course, was the central figure when Rovers’ season went from agony to ecstasy in 17 mad final-day seconds at Brentford in 2013.

He then sampled pain with his Doncaster team-mates at Leicester City at the end of the following season, with he and his colleagues sitting prostrate on the turf after Rovers were relegated from the Championship – when news filtered through of Birmingham City’s last-gasp equaliser at Bolton Wanderers.

Butler has also been involved in final-day scenes of glory with Scunthorpe and survival at Walsall and the trio are long enough in the tooth to know that anything can happen today.

As it stands, sixth-placed Rovers – a point clear of Posh and with a comfortably superior goal difference – are in the box seat for the final play-off ticket.

But there will be plenty of supporters’ attention surrounding events at London Road where Darren Ferguson’s side welcome Oxford United with the Scot intent upon spoil the party at former club Doncaster.

Rowe, for one, is driven not to experience more pain.

He told The Yorkshire Post: “That (at Crystal Palace) was the worst, by far.

“If you look at the stats from that season, we went down on 54 points and this season we would be 15th or 16th in the Championship with that. It is phenomenal really.

“That was our second season in the Championship and Peterborough had not done that for thirty or forty years. It was a phenomenal end, but it did break the group up as players got taken.

“I believe at one point we were safe, but then two teams (Huddersfield and Barnsley) were passing the ball around together as they believed that they were safe. It was an amazing day, but that is what you are in football for.

“It can change at any minute and we know that. Right now, we are riding the crest of a wave and we want to keep the momentum going on Saturday and onwards.

“Palace was the worst I have experienced, personally. But it definitely helped me as a player, in terms of learning from that.

“I was relatively young at the time although I’d been through a lot prior to that already.

“I do not expect this group of young lads to go through that together and, hopefully, their way is to get to their first (promotion) and let’s see if they can do it on the big stage.”

While Rowe, 30, is aiming to do his bit to rubber-stamp play-off qualification with Rovers, someone who he knows well will be seeking to do something about that down the A1 at Peterborough, with the hosts taking on Burton Albion.

The individual concerned is Rowe’s former team-mate Lee Tomlin, who scored on that fateful afternoon at Selhurst Park and is now assigned with producing the magic to gatecrash Posh into the play-offs at Rovers’ expense.

On Tomlin, who scored to keep Posh’s top-six hopes alive at Portsmouth in midweek, Rowe added: “Lee is a great, great player and technically one of the best I have played with personally.

“Peterborough are a good team and will be looking to do what we are. It seems like a mini play-off between the teams as Burton and Coventry are looking to next season now and it is a case of who can they shock as they aim to kick on next time.”

Urging Rovers to relish the situation in an expectant final-day crowd swelled by 2,000 Coventry supporters, the midfielder continued: “In the games we have done well in, we have expressed ourselves. That is what we need from the team.

“We need the lads who have been ever-present all season to go and embrace and grab it and see how it goes. If you do not get there, at least you have given your all and that is the minimum requirement. But we are confident we will get there and will stay calm and composed and take it.

“It is black and white and we know where we are at.”

Ensuring that the family can afford themselves another glorious episode is also in the mindset of Rowe, whose younger brother Danny is basking in the glow of title glory with recently-crowned League Two champions Lincoln City.

On continuing a fine season for the Rowe sporting family, the schemer, previously promoted with Posh and first club Stockport County early in his career in 2007-08, said: “He (Danny) has just had a good promotion with Lincoln and he has done well. We have spoken about that and I have said to my mum that it would be nice to get the double.

“Obviously, he went to Wembley before with Lincoln, so it would be nice for us to go there as well so our parents can have a good day out again and another win.”