Rovers gaffer wants run in "great cup" but will be sensible.
Ahead of a first round tie against League One Oldham, Darren Ferguson is hoping that Cup fever grips the people of Doncaster as much as it has done in his home town of Stamford.
Northern Premier League Division One South side Stamford AFC – known as 'The Daniels' – will take on League Two side Hartlepool United and it has got everyone talking, Ferguson reckoned.
“My local team Stamford are going to Hartlepool and the town is full of talking about it; only this tournament does that,” he said.
“The aim for clubs like ourselves is to get to the third round and get a big one, that’s what you hope for and there’s no difference this season.
“It’s a fantastic tournament, there isn’t anything like it in any other country, there’s no argument on that. Look at the Copa Del Rey and things like that and there’s no comparison to it. It’s got imagination, it catches everyone’s’ imagination.
“It’s a great cup. We had a really good run in it last year; we had a fantastic full house, a really enjoyable game in which we were pipped at the end. Whatever team I pick, I want us to win the game. I’m not picking a side that will be just running around on a Saturday afternoon and that’s been explained thoroughly to the players that whatever team I pick will still be a strong team and still be a team capable of beating Oldham as I want to go as far as I can in the cup.
“I have to, as a manager, have common sense with the injuries we’ve got we can’t risk any more to certain players. We’ll be treating it like any other game and I really want to win and get in the next round.”
One player who will definitely miss out is Tommy Rowe who was relieved to see the extent of his ankle injury see him miss only a couple of weeks football, rather than the rest of the season, but there’s good news in defence.
“Obviously Rowe won’t be involved but he’s fine,” Ferguson continued.
“Frazer Richardson and Craig Alcock have come through training so they’ll be involved – Alcock will definitely start but I’ve got to make a decision on Frazer yet so it’s all good.
“It’s a long time coming but (Craig) has had a bad injury and come through training in the last two weeks. We fully expect that he’ll get a full game and he’ll be fine. It’ll be difficult for him physically because it’s his first game but he will be fine.
“There’ll be changes, I feel that we’ll probably take a decent following because geographically it’s not far so I just want to tell the fans there will be changes with the current injury problems we have I can’t risk certain players and I won’t. There will be changes but there won’t be nine or anything like that, there will just be some.”