DERBY County had it rammed into them week in, week out, last season that they were not good enough for the Premiership.
The Rams fate was sealed long before the "business end" of the season and their points tally of 11 was the worst on record in the Premiership.
Not surprisingly, manager Paul Jewell has rung the changes during the close season, ditching a number of stars who failed to sparkle in the top flight and bringing in around a dozen new players.
Jewell, who steered Wigan to Premiership status several years ago, replaced Billy Davies last`December and has gone mainly for players who have made their reputation in the Championships or League One.
Among those is former Rovers midfielder Paul Green.
Green's departure, just days after helping Rovers beat Leeds United in the League One play-off final at Wembley, took some of the gloss off their feat in winning promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time in 50 years.
After languishing on the sidelines for most of the first half of the season, the club's longest serving player produced a series of outstanding displays in the second half of the campaign.
His form didn't go unnoticed by Jewell, who started to look around for new recruits for the 2008-09 campaign within weeks of taking over, and stepped in with an offer the former youth team player couldn't refuse.
Green will be hoping that he has done enough during the club's pre-season games to secure himelf a place in Derby's starting line-up against his old club.
Green was one of Rovers most popular players during the time he wore the red and white shirt, but he is likely to inspire a different kind of response from those Doncaster fans making the journey to the impressive Pride Park tomorrow.
Kris Commons, another player to ply his trade in League One last season, is also hoping to make the starting line-up following his close season move from Nottingham Forest.
Like Green, Commons was one of the best players in League One last season and was an infliuential figure in Forest's promotion campaign.
Jewell is not short of options in attack with 28 year-old Rob Hulse, who has previously seen duty with both Leeds and West Bromwich Albion, checking in at Pride Park this week following a £1.75m move from Sheffield United.
Doncaster Rovers: Preview for the season, including ins and outs and squad numbers. Don't miss Saturday's Green'Un newspaperWhat do you think? Post your comments below. READ MORE Football headlinesMore BladesMore OwlsMore SpireitesMore RoversMore RedsMore MillersMore Ice HockeyMore rugby leagueMore rugby unionMore boxingSports columnistsAll sport categoriesThe full article contains 471 words and appears in Doncaster Star newspaper.
