Ipswich Town v Doncaster Rovers: ‘I think Rovers have turned the corner now’

Rovers had a difficult start under Wellens but were always likely to. Like tonight’s hosts, Ipswich Town, they completely overhauled their squad this summer, compounded by a Covid-19 disrupted pre-season and bad luck with injuries, particularly to their forwards and captain Tom Anderson.

The last 10 days brought Wellens’s first two wins, against Morecambe and Manchester City Under-21s. Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Plymouth Argyle did not spoil that, despite a last-minute penalty which saw Wellens red-carded for his reaction.

“We’ve been a shell of a team but I think we’ve turned the corner now,” said Wellens. “When you go to Plymouth on a really good run and that’s the most difficult game they’ve had apart from Rotherham, you can take positives but we need to start winning.”

The negative was painfully obvious to Wellens.

“We’ve played eight league games and there’s been 11 occasions where we’ve had either a sending-off against us, a penalty we should have had or shouldn’t have given away, Tommy Rowe’s disallowed goal against Wigan,” said Wellens, who will email Argyle to apologise for kicking an empty water bottle into the crowd in response to the penalty.

“We’ve got to make sure we impose what we can control and we did against Plymouth. We should have got at least a point.”

Last six games: Ipswich Town DWLLDD; Doncaster Rovers LWWLDW

Referee: C Brook (Sussex)

Last time: Ipswich Town 2 Doncaster Rovers 1, February 7, 2021, League One.