Doncaster Rovers: Why Yorkshire fans need to be realistic in expectations of managers - Stuart Rayner

Their former winger, who seemed to slightly reluctantly step up from the academy when the club needed a manager to try and stop what already in December felt like a headlong hurtle towards relegation, tried his best and came across as honest and decent.

Ultimately, though, the fans did not like what they were watching. McSheffrey was sacked and the baton has been passed to Danny Schofield.

From the very late confirmation of two Chelsea games – because of complications from European draws in September – to yet another missed deadline for broadcasters to tell fans which Premier League games they plan to move over Christmas, to 10 minutes at Elland Road on Sunday where a match was suspended and nobody thought to tell the paying fans what was going on, supporters are regularly treated with contempt.

Those are Premier League examples from this season, but the mindset permeates the pyramid.

Doncaster fans know more about how their team has played in the last 11 months than those of us in the media who dip in and out, or who study results which – like when Rovers hauled a few points out of the fire early in the season – can sometimes be deceptive.

Taking a view on a manager when you are detached from a situation is very different to when you feel the pain of every defeat. Take as exhibit A Gary Neville, an excellent pundit who often speaks out about the short-termism behind sacking top managers in between firing Salford City's.

Whenever a manager gets sacked, questions are rightly asked of others. Do the board know what they are doing? Had they given the poor sod a hospital pass with their lack of support – financial or moral? Did the players let him down?

As fans we are not exempt from that. I say "we" because like almost everyone in the football media, I am a fan too, just as guilty of the bias and over-reactions to my own team's ups and downs.

Much to our frustrations sometimes fans do not make the decisions on sackings, but we certainly influence them.

Every now and then we are on the side of the man who gets the P45 – take Leeds' unpopular decision to sack Marcelo Bielsa, for example – but more often we are impatient.

The whole point of a sports club is it should always be wanting better, unwilling to settle for the mediocrity Doncaster supporters felt they were getting twice a week.

But are we realistic about how quickly it can be achieved?

We are halfway through October and five of Yorkshire's 11 league clubs have lost their manager – all but Rotherham United's Paul Warne were sacked, whatever euphemistic wording the press releases came out with. The county's worst-performing club this season, League Two Harrogate Town, have stayed patient.

Only six Championship managers out of 24 have been in their job longer than a year.

How many of the clubs who see managers as being as expendable as chancellors are better off for it?

But what about Chelsea? When Jose Mourinho was in charge there the first time, they were the best team in England. Fifteen years and 14 managers after the Portuguese's first sacking, they are not. They are a very good team but having slipped off that perch, can they be said to have progressed?

That said, if two European Cups, three league titles, four FA Cups, a League Cup and two Europa Leagues since is plateauing, most clubs would take that, so we can mark that down as a success for the restless. How many more are there?

McSheffrey had a huge job last season and failed in it. But the path Richie Wellens had set them on looked very hard to come off. That Wellens is now second in League Two with Leyton Orient suggests the manager was down the list of problems.

This season's job was threefold: stop that rot, play attractive football and win promotion.

Part one was achieved, and it was massive. Those deceptive, late get-out-of-jail goals showed McSheffrey had done something really significant.

Twelfth when the trigger was pulled, Doncaster were not in the promotion places but three points outside the play-offs with 96 still to play for, they are still well in the frame.

Was the football just like watching Brazil? Not unless you mean Alan.

But are they better off for the change?

Rovers were never going to have the resources to attract a manager like Mark Hughes, who was lured to Bradford City last season, and in opting for a manager with as little experience as Schofield, they have taken a huge gamble, rather than a clear step forward, much the same as Middlesbrough will in appointing Michael Carrick. Hopefully the fact Schofield is a Doncaster lad will buy him some time but it did not do much good for Andy Butler (sacked after 18 games), or for fellow former Rovers players Wellens (fired after 26) and McSheffrey (46).

But Schofield was sacked by Huddersfield just nine games into his management career. The boos at full-time on Tuesday showed his successor Mark Fotheringham is not having much of a honeymoon either.

After the money they invested in the summer, chief executive Gavin Baldwin told supporters last month the club “expect” promotion but now they have an inexperienced manager getting to grips with a new squad under pressure to change the style as well as the results. It can be done and we wish him all the best, but it is asking a lot.

So how long will it be before this conversation comes around again?