Rovers John Ryan confident of Championship survival

Rovers are rated as favourites for Championship relegation along with fellow promoted sides Yeovil Town and Bournemout and with the stalling of investment talks with Irish consortium Sequentia Capital this week the odds have lengthend with bookmakers. Rovers, who welcome Blackpool this afternoon, have been linked with several big-name transfers,including former goal hero Billy Sharp and the Premier League duo of Shay Given and Stephen Ireland, but with that deal now on the back-burner, any successful immediate moves look remote. Despite that, Ryan is keeping steadfastly positive regarding Rovers' hopes, with his glass still very much half-full. He is also mindful of how the Keepmoat Stadium outfit made the pundits tipping their demise in their first season in the second tier since 1958 in 2008-09 eat their words with they finished in 14th place. This came after they looked down and out in December following a run of two wins in 20 games, only for the club to spectacularly defy the odds from Christmas onwards. Ryan is confident that they can survive and ultimately prosper again and that they possess the talent to stay up despite a slow summer of recruitment and achieve Championship consolidation. He said: "We have got some exciting players. People moaned and groaned about the state of our squad last season and we won the league when a lot of people said we'd go down. We'll have a go this year and be a surprise package. "Success, in all fairness, would be consolidation. I'd like to think we can finish in the top half, but anywhere around the middle would be great - a tremendous achievement and then we can kick on from there.