'Pressure is a privilege': Luke Molyneux on why Doncaster Rovers are happy to have a target on their backs in League Two

The date of May 10, 2024 won’t be viewed with any fondness whatsoever by anyone of a Rovers’ persuasion.

If Rovers are celebrating promotion at the end of 24-5, expect it to be name-checked.

It will hold psychological significance further down the line.

The capriciousness of play-off football manifested itself at the Eco-Power Stadium on that aforesaid date as Crewe Alexandra turned around a two-goal League Two semi-final first-leg deficit and went onto to triumph on penalties and book a Wembley berth in Rovers’ back garden as bewilderment enveloped three-quarters of the ground on a mad late spring evening.

Not that those players in Doncaster jerseys were allowed to lick their wounds after the denouement. Quite the opposite.

Manager Grant McCann cast aside the hurt to roar a message of defiance. There were no soothing words for his players either, as he cut to the chase.

Having stressed that the title - let alone promotion - would be targeted in the next campaign, McCann promptly told any players who were not ready for the challenge ‘not to come back’.

It was stark. Molyneux, for one, was not a doubter and soon on board. Out of contract at the end of last term, he had signed a new contract within three weeks.

With some of League Two’s well-backed clubs from last season having departed, Rovers will have a target on their backs, given their astonishing form in the final third of 2023-24 which so nearly conjured one of those special EFL stories which you get once in a while.

That’s fine by Molyneux as you suspect it will be for McCann as well.

Molyneux told The Yorkshire Post: "A lot of the lower teams will want to beat you and rightly so.

"It puts more pressure on your shoulders, but at the end of the day, pressure is a privilege and I feel like we have got a lot of experienced lads in that team.

"Now we have had a full season, we all know how we all play and what the gaffer likes and I feel that is going to propel us even more.

"You want to be in a team which is not just fighting for the play-offs, but fighting for the automatics and the league. I think that’s the main thing.

"I feel like with the league, a lot of big clubs got promoted last year in Stockport, Mansfield and Wrexham.

"I feel like we are one of the biggest clubs in this league and have to use what we did last year and take that into next season and then we will definitely be right up there.”

Rovers’ seriousness about going one better in the new season was re-confirmed by the recent signing of one of the most well-respected marksmen at EFL level over the last couple of decades in Billy Sharp.

At a senior age he may be, but Sharp is the sort of arrival who rivals cannot ignore.

Another stand-out character and winner at Football League level in Richard Wood is also back on deck for 24-25 and Rovers will certainly not be short on the leadership front as they embark on unfinished business.

Doncaster were ultimately felled in dramatic fashion, but their journey from looking over their shoulders towards the relegation zone in late January to play-off gatecrashers was a remarkable one all the same.

It helped reconnect with many Doncastrians who have been voting with their feet regarding Rovers for a few years and got them back onboard.

Over 10,000 home fans were in attendance against Crewe with Rovers’ compelling late-season story capturing the imagination.

It showed what the club are capable of in the process.

Charting where the magic began in a run which saw Rovers equal a club record of ten successive league wins set in 1947, Molyneux continued: “I am not really sure. It was probably around the Crawley time when we beat them away.

"That was kind of in the middle of our run and we went down to ten men after 50 or 60 minutes and with the fans, we managed to hold on to get the win.

"I think that was a massive win for us and a moment when you felt like everything was coming together. Then, obviously the Barrow game as well in being 2-0 down at half time and managing to come back and win 4-2.

"It was one of the best games of football I have been involved in and it was just crazy what happened on that day.

"Everyone was just stunned at the end of the game and no-one could believe what had happened. It was one of those where we felt we could beat anyone.”

Regardless of a bitter finale against Crewe in their next home game, Rovers emphatically made their fourth-tier rivals sit up and take notice in their spring rising and motivation won’t be in short supply come August 10.