John Marquis maintains ruthless attitude at Doncaster Rovers

AS a late arrival to the Northampton Town promotion charge last season, John Marquis joined a team that was well on its way towards winning the League Two title.
Doncaster Rovers' John Marquis celebrates scoring his second goal against Portsmouth. (
Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)Doncaster Rovers' John Marquis celebrates scoring his second goal against Portsmouth. (
Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)
Doncaster Rovers' John Marquis celebrates scoring his second goal against Portsmouth. ( Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe)

Despite that, the Cobblers – then led by Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder – had a ruthless edge that struck a chord with the Londoner and one he intends to repeat this time around during the run-in with Doncaster Rovers.

“I was only at Northampton for the last 15 games and the job was almost done,” said Marquis about his February switch to Sixfields Stadium on loan from Millwall.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“But I picked up the ruthless mentality of needing to win games. They kind of knew they were already up when I arrived. But the target was to win this many games in a row and so on. They wanted to smash records and we want to do that here this season.

“We want to go up in style. We haven’t lost at home all season and we want that to continue. Things like that mean there is always ways to better yourselves and we want to do that.”

Doncaster are certainly making a good fist of succeeding Northampton as the champions of the basement division.

Thursday night’s win over Portsmouth in front of the live Sky cameras nudged Darren Ferguson’s men four points clear at the top. It also widened the gap between Rovers and fourth placed Pompey to 10 points.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We try not to look at the table too much,” added Marquis. “But anyone who beats Portsmouth twice in a season is going to be up there. A bit of a gap has opened up but we are not going to rest.

“I can’t tell you who is the best team in this league until May 7. It is a 46-game season and the table rarely lies after that number of games.

“In my opinion, we are one of the stronger teams in the league. We have a lot of goals in our team and we have also had clean sheets lately.”

Marquis took his tally of goals for the season to 12 for the season with his double against Pompey. He marked the first of those by miming the throwing of a dart – a celebration that was for his mum back in London.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“I am a big fan of darts and my mum plays in a team,” added the summer signing. “She is quite good. She was playing darts with all her friends in London and got there early to watch our game. I said if I scored, I would get to the oche and throw a few!

“I am not very good at darts. I can’t beat my mum, she is far too good for me. I am just an idiot when I celebrate. I do silly stuff. The second one was a bit off the cuff because I didn’t have anything planned.”