Flynn eager to finish rebuilding job Saunders started

Saunders steered Doncaster to second in League One in the first half of the season, a performance that prompted Wolves chairman Steve Morgan to lure him away from the Keepmoat Stadium in early January.

And as Saunders now battles to keep Wolves in the Championship, the two men who succeeded him – Brian Flynn as manager and Rob Jones as his assistant – are out to finish the job he started.

Doncaster head to Brentford tomorrow with promotion on the line.

Win or draw against their closest rivals and Rovers will be back in the second tier at the first time of asking.

Lose at Griffin Park, and it will be Brentford who are promoted, leaving Flynn and Jones to pick up the pieces and try again in the play-offs.

Whatever the outcome, both Flynn and Saunders know the position the club finds itself in owes a lot to Saunders.

For Flynn, who Saunders brought to the club last summer as advance scout, clinching promotion will be a fitting tribute to the work his predecessor began.

“At the start of the season I met with Dean, Brian (Carey – then assistant) and the staff and we tried to chart the season,” said Flynn.

“The first thing we all talked about was the snowball effect of relegation, how easy it is to slip back down another division.

“So to now find ourselves in this scenario, having secured a play-off place with eight games to go and now just needing one point away from home to get promoted, is an excellent achievement.

“Would we have taken that at the start of the season? Of course we would.

“A lot of brave and bold decisions were made at the start of the season in terms of recruitment.

“We only had eight players under contract and we needed to build a squad.

“Dean did that and he continued it on the training ground and then I’ve come out of the blue and here I am trying to finish it.

“I’ve been in touch Dean and Brian (Carey), I am regularly.

“Both of them have got a soft spot for the club and want us to do well.”

Jones was one of those key summer additions by Saunders, with the Stockton-on-Tees-born 33-year-old adding the defensive foundation that allowed other new faces, like David Cotterill, to flourish in front of him.

Now, Jones is Flynn’s assistant.

Jones said: “Dean Saunders has to take a lot of credit for the players that he brought in and the hard work he and Brian Carey did in the summer to galvanise a squad that works very hard for each other.

“They take an awful lot of the plaudits. Yes, they’re not here any more but we’ve carried it on and done a very good job.

“But that will only be capped off with a result at the weekend.”