Rovers matchday magazine, RTID, caught up with midfielder, David Syers and spoke about how he is finding life in South Yorkshire.
We previously spoke to David for the first competitive game of the season against York City in the Capital One Cup first round, and this is a follow up to find out how he has adapted to life in League One with Rovers and what his thoughts are on the season so far.
David, when we last caught up with you it was in the pre-season at the York City Game, can you tell us a little about the season since?
Well obviously it has gone well, if you had said to anyone last summer that come April we would be sitting top of the table, five points clear of second place, everyone would have snapped your hand. It’s a sign of how well we have been doing, it’s the mark we’ve set of how well we need to do from now on to ensure we are where we are now come the end of the season.
You moved up a division from Bradford City to come here. How has it gone for you and how do you think you have adapted to League One?
Personally, I’m really happy with the way it’s gone. I think last time we spoke I said my aim was to try and get as many games as possible in the first team. I think looking over the games I’ve played I could have scored probably double what I have scored and I still want to add to that before the end of the season as I don’t think the five I have now is a true reflection of how many I can get. I think I’ve 30 plus games, which is personally a really good achievement for me.
Dean Saunders always said you were a fantastic attacking midfield player and you always had a goal in you. It must have given you confidence when he made statements like that.
Yes I think it was very important after the past couple of years to be signed by a manager that has obviously seen you and rated you and wants you to come and play in his team. As a player that always give you great confidence and I’m happy with the way I played in my time under Dean Saunders. I think I played well and now it’s about coming back from this injury and doing the same for Brian Flynn.
It is a tough run in the next month or so when all the squad is needed. Is it hard for all the players, especially if you’re injured, to get back involved?
Well that’s it and my aim is just to get fit, as soon as possible. Last time I was out with my other injury for three weeks, I came back in and off the bench against Oldham on Boxing Day and actually managed to grab the winning goal. I then got four in the next couple of games so that’s the kind of impact you want to have when you’re coming back from injury. Every game is tough at the moment and the lads are working really hard so you want to be able to help them by coming back in with just that little bit of extra energy from having a few weeks’ rest.
When the other lads are working hard, this is what you’ve got to bring to the team when you have missed a few weeks. It’s such an important part of the season from now on in and I know from looking at the Bury game that there are no easy games no matter which team you’re playing and what end of the table they are in. Everyone is fighting and scrapping for points and it’s up to us to go out there and remember that and as a squad grind out as many wins as possible and avoid losing as many games as possible.
As a player what is the spirit like in the camp?
It was sky high and then Dean left - anything that upsets the apple cart so to speak makes people worry because we’ve been doing so well. But then Brian came in and lifted everyone again it’s now going really well and I now think it’s just a question of making sure in these last seven games that we don’t throw way what we have done so well for the previous games. We have done it for that many games; we know we are good enough to keep going. It is just down to psychologically not thinking too far ahead, literally just taking it game by game and we’re not going to win every game 3-0 because that is not how we have got to where we are. We've gone out there for the first half of the season thinking first and foremost the worst thing that can happen is we draw 0-0.
We built from there and that has been our ethos all season so we can’t start thinking now we've done well and the job has been done. League teams go on runs all the time and then drop off, so it’s up to us to take it game by game and just see where we are come the last game of the season.