Former scholars round-up (05/05/21)

A Cypriot moving around in South Korea. Wembley joy and despair for two lads, plus an ex-scholar getting his UEFA B license - here is the latest round-up on the whereabouts of various former Doncaster Rovers scholars.

The promotion dream might be over for DRFC for another season but several players who've come through the ranks have continued to feature in the first team.

Midfielder AJ Greaves has been rewarded for his efforts with a new one-year contract whilst Louis Jones has returned between the sticks after being rested for a few games. Nevertheless, the most-used ex-scholar since the last update in April has been Branden Horton who has featured six times and was finally on the winning side as Rovers beat Rochdale at Spotland last weekend. Unfortunately, Danny Amos hasn't had any game-time in the past few weeks though he has featured on the bench - as has Ben Blythe who'll no doubt be hoping to make his senior debut on the final day of the season against Peterborough United. Current youth team 'keeper Ben Bottomley has also been an unused substitute. As mentioned previously, Lirak Hasani cannot feature - despite the fact he's fit, due to the stupid FA and EFL rules surrounding loan moves during the season!

Rovers' disappointing recent form has stirred plenty of debate and the most recent defeat was a 2-0 reverse at Blackpool last night which saw the hosts seal a League One Play-Off spot.

Ex-academy player Jerry Yates set-up one of the goals but the most familiar name to many fans in the Seasiders' line-up would have been James Husband. The right-back made 73 appearances for DRFC before joining Middlesbrough in July 2014, and has recently returned to Blackpool's side following a spell out on the sidelines.

Whether Husband will get to play on the Wembley pitch later this month remains to be seen but one player who has just done precisely that is Jack Muldoon. The 31-year-old was part of Harrogate Town's team which beat Concord Rangers in the long-delayed 2020 FA Trophy Final on Monday. The frontman has also bagged 14 goals this term - including strikes against Bradford City and Carlisle United within the past month but saw a penalty saved in a 2-2 draw with Leyton Orient.

Valentino Sielis: From Cantley Park to South Korea, via Cyprus! (Photo: Unknown)

Muldoon spent the 2007/08 season in the youth ranks at Cantley Park with a Cypriot lad called Valentino Sielis (pictured above) - someone who hasn't yet been mentioned in any previous articles. Sielis wasn't a scholar in the traditional sense as he was only on the books for a year and arrived at the club from Tottenham Hotspur, but he did feature in various line-ups (including in the FA Youth Cup) in late 2007. Since then, he's gone on to have a decent career - featuring at international level for his country and appearing for Anorthosis, amongst others, at club level. Earlier this year, Sielis moved across South Korea from Jeju United (based in Seogwipo) to Busan IPark - in the process proving that ex-scholars really do get everywhere!

Much closer to home, Liam Nelthorpe will not be going to Wembley for an FA Vase Final with North Ferriby. Despite hammering West Auckland Town of the Northern League, 4-0, the Villagers were deemed to have fielded an ineligible player and were subsequently thrown out of the competition - provoking an angry statement of innocence on the club's website in which they blamed the County FA!

Elsewhere, Paul McKay and Jack McKay will have a shot at promotion to the Scottish Championship in the coming weeks after Airdrieonians collected 16 points from their final seven matches to make the Play-Offs - including a dramatic, last-gasp 2-0 win over Falkirk last night. Paul has been an ever-present in defence during that run whilst Jack, on loan from Chesterfield, has featured somewhat intermittently up front.

One youth team graduate still at Chesterfield and in the final year of his contract is Liam Mandeville. Now aged 24, the striker hasn't managed to find the target since Easter Friday (incidentally, it was his only goal so far this season) and the Spireites' indifferent form means their hopes of securing a Play-Off spot in the National League remains very much in the balance. Eastleigh are one of many teams in the chasing pack and their long-serving defender Andrew Boyce was on the score-sheet in a 2-0 win over fellow promotion rivals Notts County last week. As the table currently stands, both Eastleigh and Chesterfield are level on points - two adrift of the top seven, with just five games of the season to go.

Lower down the pyramid, several clubs deemed to be 'non-elite' have resumed training following the easing of lockdown restrictions and have taken part in friendly games.

Rossington celebrate a goal in the friendly win over Rovers youngsters (Photo: Russ Shephard).

Scott Brown featured for Pontefract Collieries in a 3-2 win over Golcar United on 20th April; Cameron Barnett scored for Rossington Main in a 7-1 win over Sutton Rovers, and Elliott Walker, Conner Williamson and Kian Johnson featured a few days later as 'Rozzo' beat the current DRFC youth team, 3-0, in a behind-closed-doors friendly at Oxford Street. Jack Watson - prolific in 2019/20 before the season was curtailed, missed the game for Rossington through injury.

Those lads, with the exceptions of Scott and Conner - who are several years older, played in the same youth team as Cameron Foulkes (now at Staveley Miners Welfare) who deserves recognition after he recently completed the necessary work to pass his UEFA 'B' license coaching course.

I've no doubt that several other youth graduates will have played in games over the past month but due to the nature of behind-closed-doors fixtures and the lack of reportage - plus the recent social media blackout, finding out details can be quite difficult so apologies if there's any lads reading whose names I've missed out this time!

Next update in June when most seasons will have concluded and fans will (hopefully) be back in the stands and on the terraces watching live football again!