Saturday 20th August (3pm), Whaddon Road, EFL Sky Bet League Two.
Rovers make their first trip to Gloucestershire in over 7 years when they face newly promoted Cheltenham Town at Whaddon Road on Saturday.
The winless Robins are unbeaten upon their immediate return to the Football League; having drawn each of their three games this term under head honcho Gary Johnson.
His opposite number Darren Ferguson will be buoyed by Tuesday night’s determined 1-0 win over Cambridge United and look to make it the first back to back wins since January; which was incidentally the South Yorkshire side’s last victory on the road.
The pair had previously never met until the 1998/99 season in the Conference when Town marched to the title and were not to reconvene until the 2003/04 Division Three season when it was the turn of Rovers to march to a title!
And, though Cheltenham were to defeat Doncaster on the final day of the 2007/08 season to escape relegation, Sean O’Driscoll’s men won promotion via the play-offs to the Championship. That 2-1 loss was the last league meeting between the clubs, though they did play out a convoluted FA Cup Third Round tie in 2009 which, after an initial postponement, went to a replay which Rovers won.
Rovers hold the upper hand in all meetings, with four wins to the Robins three.
TEAM NEWS: Tyler Garratt will be ruled out for up to a month while Niall Mason is absent for up to eight weeks joining Paul Keegan, Gary McSheffrey, Mathieu Baudry, Craig Alcock, Aaron Taylor-Sinclair and Luke McCullough on the sidelines.
LAST TIME:
Tue 20th Jan 2009:
DRFC – 3 (Stock, 26, 58; Hird, 36)
CTFC – 0
FA Cup R3r
Keepmoat Stadium
Attendance – 5345
DRFC – N Sullivan, J O'Connor, M Mills (A Lockwood, 77), S Hird, J Chambers (G Roberts, 60), M Woods, B Stock, R Wellens, J Coppinger (P Heffernan, 67), L Guy, J Spicer
CTFC - S Brown, A Lindegaard, S Duff, A Gallinagh, L Ridley, D Bird (J Durrant, 77), A Wright (J Hayes, 46), A Russell, L Owusu, E Hammond, A Vincent (M Watkins, 69)
HEAD TO HEAD: Results (in Cheltenham): CTFC– 2, Rovers – 2, Draws – 1
WHAT ARE THE ODDS? CTFC – 9/5; DRFC 9/4, Draw 6/4.
ROVERS PLAYER: Listen to live coverage from 14:45 with Tom Biltcliffe and Jordan Owens.
ROVERS WALL: Follow all the action as it happens from 14:00