Here is some coursework I did a little while ago for my degree. It was my first attempt at such a piece. The interview was conducted after Doncaster had beaten Southampton 2-1. Coppinger's follow-up to Martin Woods' opener proved decisive and started the climb up the league. I spoke to a pretty chuffed Copps after, and this is the result of our conversation. Enjoy!James Coppinger fancied the free kick from the moment he was fouled on the edge of the box. Having already scored two goals in front of the packed Keepmoat Stadium, he now had the chance to send Doncaster Rovers into the League One play-off final and complete a stunning hat-trick.
“Paul Green said 'tap it to me and change the 'keepers angle'... So I tapped it, hit it, and the rest is history. It was a massive goal for the club and a massive high in my football career.”
Life just keeps getting better and better for James Coppinger. This season has seen the attacking midfielder and the 'Rovers side making a name for themselves in the Coca Cola Championship with their unique brand of passing football masterminded by manager Sean O'Driscoll.
When we meet in Southampton's press lounge mid-January, Coppinger's winner has just given Doncaster their third win in four matches to lift them above the Saints in the Championship relegation zone.
On the back of three straight victories, there is a real sense that this could be the turning point in the Rover's season, and although he had to wait until the new year to find the mark against Burnley, Copps – as he is known – is now riding on a wave of confidence that he feels is shared by the rest of the team.
“We've found it quite hard, we've not scored many goals but I think we've turned it round at the right time, and for me to get the my first goal this season against Burnley was a massive weight off of my shoulders. My confidence is high now, and it was good to get on the score sheet and get the lads three points today.”
The Woods/Wellens/Stock/Coppinger midfield combination has stifled some of the biggest names in the Championship this season, and although the goals haven't quite started accumulating yet, Doncaster have surprised everyone with their famous football this season, and a knack for holding onto their slender leads, making every goal count.
“It's good to receive praise, but it's not good when you're playing well and getting beaten every week” he says, talking of the accolades O'Driscoll and his men receive weekly, “We've got a lot of good players at this football club and the results have started coming with the performances now. Hopefully that'll be an ongoing thing and we can stay in this division.”
Regular football in the Championship might well have been the last thing on Coppinger's mind five years ago when he found himself relegated to the Conference with Exeter City. “When I fell out of the Football League with Exeter, there was a point when I decided to pack in it. I'd had enough of football.”
Off the pitch matters also had a hand to play in a pivotal time in his career. “It was the worst time. I was in a funny place when we were relegated. My granddad had died a year previous and it was the icing on the cake really.” Eventually, and fortunately he was talked around to continuing his career and the rise to the cusp of the Premiership begun.
Strangely, it was the Premiership where Coppinger's professional career begun. Signed on deadline day by Kenny Dalglish for £250,000, the starry eyed 17-year-old went from training with the Darlington youth team to training with the likes of John Barnes, Ian Rush, Stuart Pearce and Alan Shearer.
“He (Dalglish) showed great faith in signing me. We got the call, my dad picked up my suit and we went up to Newcastle and signed on the day.” he recalls, “I was a young lad from a small town, signing for Newcastle. It was surreal. I was overwhelmed for a while, training with these people, it was ridiculous.”
Two successful loan spells with Hartlepool United helped the young attacker develop his game, something, which he feels shaped him into the person he is today.
“It was a massive taste for me, and every time I went back to Newcastle I didn't want to play in the reserves, I always wanted to play in the first team,” he remembers, after twice helping Hartlepool into the play-offs. First team chances didn't come along and despite coming on as a substitute for his Newcastle debut in August 2000, he had to start thinking about his future, and ended up taking a huge gamble on his career.
“I decided to make a massive, massive step and move away from my family. I'd never left really left Guisborough and Middlesbrough. I was a very family orientated person but I made one of the biggest decisions of my life and moved 360 miles down to Exeter.”
Cementing a reputation in Division Three with Exeter City, his five goals in the 2002/03 season were not enough to stave off relegation to the Conference, although now talked back into football a newly rejuvenated Coppinger thrived at this level, scoring eight more goals the following season to aid his clubs bid to make an instant return to the Football League.
The return wasn't to be, but the diminutive attackers talents hadn't gone unnoticed. Doncaster Rovers were a team that had made a league return and they'd also gone one better, securing back-to-back promotions - meaning they would start the 2004/05 season in the newly named League One. The manager behind these exploits was Dave Penney, and when he came calling in the summer of 2004, Copps was ready to make the step up.
“I wasn't really nervous about stepping up. Donny showed great faith in signing me. I was an understudy to Jermain McSporran who signed at exactly the same time as me, and a lot of people had heard of him. I went in with no pressure on me and enjoyed getting in there and making a reputation for myself.”
He knew how important reputation was. In the mid 90's the Coppinger family were all Middlesbrough season ticket holders, and a wide-eyed James watched in awe as a series of International stars captured the hearts of Teesside.
“I used to watch Juninho, Emerson and Ravanelli when they were there, and that's what got me to play in the position I play in, and the way I play. Juninho was my idol when I grew up.”
Despite missing the first two games of the season, due to a ban picked up at the end of the 2003/04 season with Exeter City, the young winger made an impressive 27 appearances in the red and white hoops and helped his side to a respectable 10th place in the final league standings, and things were about to get even better for the Rovers.
A League Cup run in 2005/06 saw Doncaster host every round at their ailing Belle Vue ground. Wrexham, Manchester City, Gillingham and Aston Villa were all unsuccessful in their attempts to advance in the competition.
Arsenal were the next visitors to Doncaster's fortress, and the home side were moments away from claiming another scalp, but it wasn't to be. Gilberto Silva bundled the ball into the net in the 121st minute and Rovers lost the resulting shoot-out, but Coppinger believes the cup run galvanised the team.
“Beating Aston Villa was massive, and being so close to beating Arsenal gave the side so much confidence. It was the stepping stone to bigger things.”
And bigger things came. Firstly there was a brand new stadium – The £32m Keepmoat Stadium to be precise, and a new manager in the shape of Sean O'Driscoll who replaced Penney in the summer of 2006. Branded by club chairman John Ryan as the “Arsene Wenger of League One”, O'Driscoll led the Rovers to eighth place in the league and also secured them their first major trophy.
“The Chairman has always wanted success. He brought O'Driscoll in and he did really well. He blended a lot of good players together. When we won the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, the eye was initially on promotion and although we didn't do that, we won the trophy and it was a brilliant day.”
With silverware in the cabinet at a fantastic new ground, there was a positive vibe at the club. Now Doncaster set themselves up for a fourth crack at promotion from League One with their slick passing football masterminded by the gaffer, but the team weren't just going to pass their way into the Championship that easily, as James explains; “People would come to the Keepmoat, they obviously knew what we were about and got 10 men behind the ball, and it was difficult, but we were successful and it showed in the play-off games.”
Starting the last day of the season in second place, a win at Cheltenham would see Doncaster automatically promoted, but as any Rovers fan will tell you, life is never that easy. A 2-1 loss consigned them to the play-offs, where they would meet Southend United in a two-legged semi final.
A stalemate at Roots Hall set the teams up for an encounter at the Keepmoat seven days later, where Doncaster would have to justify their season in just one match. “The 0-0 at Southend was a resolute performance, but we used the loss at Cheltenham as a catalyst in the second leg, and we showed some balls, if you like.”
Balls indeed, were shown, as the hosts were 2-0 up inside twenty minutes, but not content to sit back, Coppinger took it upon himself to destroy Southend completely. His two fantastic solo efforts put Rovers 4-0 up, and then he won the free kick that would show the world how far this small club had come.
“The confidence from scoring one goal, never mind two goals was massive,” he remembers, and with one kick of the ball he completed his first ever career hat-trick with a sublime free-kick that doubled his goal tally for the whole season - in one game.
The win sent former Conference side Doncaster Rovers to Wembley to meet Leeds, in a game they would win 1-0, sending them to the Championship, where we find Coppinger today.
From the Conference to the Championship in five years is some mean feat, especially for a man that almost gave it all up - “I'm proof you can come out of the other side and go from that, to where I am today and I'm glad of that.”
“When I got relegated to the Conference, normal people would say that you'd never dream of playing in the Championship, but it was something that I did dream of. I wanted to get back up there, and I wanted to prove people that had doubted me at Newcastle and Hartlepool wrong, and it's something that I'm taking with two hands. I take every positive out of every game, we all do, and the more the games come, the more positive we remain.”
And scoring today in a six-pointer relegation battle against Southampton?
“It feels great, but it'd feel even better if were safe.” Remarks Copps, and it is at this point I notice that his hands are shaking ever so slightly. I find out that he doesn't eat anything before the game, and he runs purely on the adrenaline and energy that he finds in his pace and trickery that has turned hundreds of left-backs inside out over the years, even if it does leave him a little on edge after the games.
As I listen back to the interview, 'On edge' appears to be a metaphor for James Coppinger's career.
From when he was on the edge of his seat watching the Brazilian revolution sweep through Middlesbrough, or when he lived his life on the edge - leaving his family to travel the length of the country for first team football.
And of course, five years after returning from the brink of giving it all up, where he was stood on the edge of the box at the Keepmoat about to tuck away 'that' free-kick to mark a fantastic high in his, and Doncaster Rovers history.
