Doncaster Rovers

The season so far has been a polar opposite to the fortunes of last year in the Championship that saw the club relegated back to League One. On New Year’s Day 2013 Rovers were perched comfortably in 3rd place in the league having already accumulated 47 points.  This term the club has enjoyed a productive month with three wins and a draw ensuring an unbeaten month to cement the position as joint league leaders.

January has been as fruitful as the early season period up to Christmas, but what has January brought for the Rovers season’s past?

This time last year Rovers were fighting for their existence in the Championship and on the 2nd January sat in 23rd place on 22 points. The run in to the end of the season would see the club claim only 14 more points in what was a year to forget for everyone involved. January proved to be a fairly baron month with one win and two draws from five games and the start of the run that saw one win in ten games that followed leading to the clubs relegation.

The 2010/11 season saw Rovers secure a fourth successive season in the Championship finishing 21st in a season that proved to be hard to gain any momentum. Rovers sat 13th at the beginning of January on 33 points. Again it proved to be a difficult month for the club partly down to the fixture congestion that saw the club play seven games by the end of January, including an FA Cup tie and the subsequent replay with Premier League side Wolves. With one win and two draws out of the seven games, the steady decline towards the bottom of the league ensued with Billy Sharp’s 15 goals a large part of the successful battle against relegation come the end of the season.

The 2009/10 Season was Doncaster Rovers highest ever league position in the football league finishing 12th on 60 points both winning and drawing 15 games however, January again proved to be an average month with 2 wins in 5 games. Placed 14th at the beginning of January the Rovers maintained a similar pace for the rest of the season and climbed two places to their eventual finishing position just 10 points out of the playoffs spots.

This year Rovers have broken the recent tradition of average form in January to maintain pace with the league promotion contenders and start the year in confident style. January was also an unbeaten month, the first since 2009.