Quiet man O'Driscoll on verge of leading Donny to cup shock
Sean O'Driscoll has spent over a decade managing in England, yet he has never been recognised as one of the top Irish managers. But all that could change today with the visit of Wolves in the FA Cup.
The Doncaster Rovers boss will welcome Mick McCarthy's side to Keepmoat Stadium knowing that a win could elevate him into the spotlight at the expense of his under-fire compatriot.
Capped three times by the Republic of Ireland in the early 1980s, the former Fulham midfielder missed out on the highs on Stuttgart '88 and Italia '90 before ending his playing days with Bournemouth.
O'Driscoll stuck with the Cherries, where he occupied several roles, including community officer, physiotherapist and youth team coach before taking over as first-team manager in 2000.
After guiding them to promotion to League Two, Doncaster came calling and he moved on. Success followed as he led Rovers to victory in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and promotion to the Championship. Yet, he still stayed under the radar.
With Doncaster now established as a mid-table club in the second tier of English football, the 53-year-old knows that the only way he will further boost his profile is by sending Wolves tumbling out of the cup or winning promotion to the Premier League.
The latter is a task that once seemed mission impossible for a club like Doncaster, but O'Driscoll insists Blackpool's promotion last season showed that it can be done.
'Blackpool have proved that if you can get into a play-off position, anything is possible. Every team in the Championship wants to get promotion but saying it is easy,' O'Driscoll told Sportsmail.
'Promotion to the Premier League in recent years of unfashionable clubs is really down to the play-off system. The league is so competitive that there is going to come a time where, with a few games to go, teams will have an equal chance of gaining a play-off place.
'Ironically, our draw against Swansea in the last game of the season enabled Blackpool to snatch that last remaining place.'
O'Driscoll is not like other managers. He is quiet, intelligent and never uses the media as a way to get what he wants. So it is hardly surprising that he views success in a different way to his peers.
Rather than being obsessed with reaching the promised land of the Premier League and exploiting every resource to hastily make that jump, O'Driscoll is more focused on steady progress.
'We are not or rather I am not, driven by the desire to get Doncaster Rovers promoted to the Premier League,' stated O'Driscoll.
'Too many clubs set that as a target and use that as the sole arbitrator of success. The result being poor, hasty decisions made for the wrong reasons, which in any industry is a recipe for disaster.'
Regarding today's cup tie, O'Driscoll has split loyalties as he will be plotting an early cup exit for the club that he grew up supporting and still refers to as 'my club'.
But any doubts of his professionalism being compromised would be laughed off by anyone who knows the studious manager. In fact, Wolves should be quite concerned about the damage that one of their own could inflict on them.
'I grew up supporting Wolves in the days of Peter Knowles, Derek Dougan, Mike Bailey etc. And I still regard Wolves as my club,' he said.
'It's always nice to play a Premier League club, especially at home for the supporters and the players [to experience it].
'We won't do anything differently in our preparation because if it's that important why are we not doing it for every game that we play?'
With O'Driscoll in command, it is unlikely that Doncaster will be overawed by a Wolves team that could feature several big-name players, including three Ireland internationals.
Instead, they will treat it just like any other game and concentrate on their own ability. The South Yorkshire side play an entertaining brand of football that is built around a fluid passing style and counter-attacking at pace, in the vein of Arsenal.
A win might finally see O'Driscoll earn some plaudits, but a cup shock may only be the start of things for Doncaster as promotion to the Premier League is not beyond them.
Maybe then he will be recognised as one of Ireland's best managerial exports.