Plymouth Argyle v Doncaster Rovers: Coppinger issues rallying cry to team-mates

James Coppinger: Sent off at Plymouth last time.

AFTER a nostalgic midweek throwback for James Coppinger, this afternoon's rewind is rather less edifying for the Doncaster Rovers veteran.

Coppinger was the sole surviving link on the pitch for Rovers in their Carabao Cup tie at Arsenal on Wednesday from their previous cup meeting with the Gunners in a famous quarter-final tie just under 12 years earlier.

The 36-year-old also has previous with today’s opponents Plymouth, having received his marching orders in a fractious meeting at the top end of League Two at Home Park last December, when hosts Argyle triumphed 2-0.

The Devonians completed the double over Rovers with victory at the Keepmoat in late March and this afternoon’s meeting also assumes plenty of importance with both sides currently towards the wrong end of the table and on poor league sequences.

Coppinger said: “It is good to stay down after the Arsenal game and concentrate on the Plymouth game and, hopefully, get back up the road with some points.

“We need to start winning games to breed belief and confidence back into the team.

“We feel that we have competed in every league game and there has been opportunities to win games.

“We just need to be better at the nitty-gritty ‘rubbish’ things and be a bit more street-wise. But I think that will come.

“We have got a young team and aside from a few players, we have got a young squad who have played very few games in this division.

“They have got to learn fast and there is no better manager than Darren Ferguson to teach then, really.”