Walsall v Doncaster Rovers: Food for thought for improving Rovers as Grant McCann reveals unique table charting League Two progress

A table based on League Two results from the end of January onwards has been regularly updated throughout February and will continue to be for the remainder of 2023-24.

So far, it has made for a pretty enough sight for Rovers, who were unbeaten in five matches last month - their longest unbeaten sequence in a spasmodic and fraught season for several reasons.

If their uplifting form extends into March and April, then it is likely to be significant, given their recent history.

Rovers’ finishes in the past three completed campaigns have been thoroughly unsatisfactory and awful, quite frankly.

Last season and in 2020-21, they won just twice in their final 16 league games. It was hardly any better in 2021-22, when they managed two wins in their last 11 matches.

It had a drip-drip effect of generating an air of pessimism around the club and sapped the morale of supporters in the process heading into the summer.

Some have lost faith and are yet to be lured back.

It has also pointed to a wider malaise at a club who were regularly dining at the Championship table just over a decade ago.

Given all that, it is easy to see why a positive end to the season is so important for everyone connected with the club.

The mood is certainly on the up, given footage of a training session on Thursday which went viral on social media after manager Grant McCann showed a sublime touch to score with a sublime volley.

McCann, whose side’s recent improvement will be tested at another form side in Walsall on Saturday, said: “I think it’s massive for us to have a really good end to the season and finish as strong as possible.

"I said to the boys ‘look, there’s the last 18 games, let’s see how we can do’ - I think it was after the game against Stockport.

"We actually put a league table up and we’re doing it weekly at the minute. It’s in the canteen for the players. We just want to finish as high up that league table as possible and we got to the other day and we were second in it until the round of games on Tuesday.

"If we can still be around that top end of the table at the end of the season, then who knows where we can end up and that’s the little challenge to the players. It’s game by game, by game.

"We can have a really good end to the season. Not for us, but for everybody at this club and end the season on a positive note, which, in turn, helps everything in the summer.”

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The ‘who knows’ comment from McCann is quite revealing in itself. It might shed a bit of light on why the decision was made to update a league table over the last 18 games in the club canteen.

For his part, McCann - in fairness - has been consistent in his mindset.

During Rovers’ travails, as recently as the first part of the new year when their proximity towards the relegation positions was starting to become concerning, he remained calm, consistent and steadfast in his mantra that he was looking upwards not below in the overall league table and there still being plenty of games to go.

The peculiar current composition of the table has backed up that school of thought. With little to separate a whole host of teams from the final play-off place downwards, opportunity knocks for anyone who can generate momentum and go on a winning run.

A case in point are Rovers’ opponents today.

Before last Saturday’s trip to Harrogate Town, the Saddlers were in 16th spot. A win in North Yorkshire allied to a midweek victory over Morecambe has shot them into the final play-off spot.

Rovers are currently 12 points behind the Saddlers, with 13 games left in their season. The gap looks to be insurmountable and it probably will be.

But this is no ordinary year and at the very least, Rovers players have handy motivation to ensure that a fourth season in a row does not die a forgettable death.

McCann continued: "For us, it’s not worrying about what happens, but focusing on the next one.

"We would like to get ourselves into that band of three, four, five points off the top seven. There’s maybe seven or eight teams.

"The next port of call for us is trying to get into that group which is on the tail of that seventh place.

"There’s no better time to do it in a three-game week with nine points at stake.

"We don’t know, but we just want to finish as strong as possible. It is a strange league, I watched Notts County against Sutton on Tuesday and what a game that was.

"You don’t know what happens game to game and just want to be as consistent as possible.”