- by Chris Mortley

In some senses, it could be seen as almost poetic - the reigning Doncaster Rovers Player of the Year getting the team off to a winning start, by striking the side's first goal in the new league season.

Whether it is poetic or not, it happened - and full back James O'Connor was understandably jubilant over his twelfth minute strike against Preston North End on the season's opening day. Picking up the ball in space on the right, the defender struck the ball sweetly to the far right of 'keeper Andy Lonergan and into the bottom corner.

O'Connor's goal was added to five minutes later by James Hayter, as Rovers emerged 2-0 winners over Preston North End.

"I was top scorer for about five minutes," O'Connor said with a smile talking to RoversPlayer.

"I was delighted with that, but I had been on about it all morning with Billy (Sharp), Copps (James Coppinger) and Hirdy (Sam Hird) who were in the room with me. I said I felt I was going to have a goal today and since Gaz Roberts has left - somebody has to step up with a few!"

 Player: O'Connor Post-Preston North End

"We started off the game doing what we needed to - being organised and disciplined," Jim commented in regard to the team's performance.

"The two goals were a bonus on top of that. In the second half, we carried on doing that. We didn't pass the ball as well as we could have. Obviously going down to ten men didn't help either, but I though Neil Sullivan was absolutely unbelievable in the final ten minutes and he showed why we rate him so highly."