Saturday 9th August 2014, 3pm, Huish Park.
Rovers make their longest journey of the season on Saturday when they travel to Somerset to face old adversaries Yeovil Town.The 450 mile round trip will be well worth it, should Paul Dickov’s men should they come away with all three points.
That particular feat has not been achieved by the South Yorkshire side since March 2004 when Ricky Ravenhill’s second half strike separated a Division 3 game and gave Rovers the confidence and momentum to secure the title.
The joy had been all the Glovers just twelve months prior though as they strolled to the Conference title by a country mile and sealed the deal when they thumped Rovers 4-0 at Belle Vue live on TV.
In total, Rovers and Yeovil have faced each other an incredible 22 times in the last 16 seasons, having never met prior to the 1998/99 season, and continue to shadow each other up and down the football league pyramid.
Gary Johnson is well in to his second spell in charge of Town, having departed Huish Park for Bristol City with an FA trophy and two promotions in three years on his managerial CV and Yeovil stuttered until his return.
Once he did, in January 2012, he helped take the club to the next level and he took the Club to the second tier for the first time in their history when they defeated Brentford during the play-offs at the end of the 2012/13. It could so easily have been Doncaster had the Bees not missed that last minute penalty against Rovers.
Last term it was a case of ‘honours even’ as both sides won their respective home fixtures. Rovers avenged that TV humiliation thanks to a Mark Duffy’s match winning free kick in a 2-1 victory which eased the hosts’ relegation fears.
The return, if anything, compounded Rovers’ demotion ‘unease’ and James Hayter – who had once famously helped elevate Rovers to the second tier – kept Dickov’s men looking over their shoulder with a penalty on the hour mark in a 1-0 win.
Last meeting:
Yeovil 1 (Hayter, 59)
Doncaster 0
Att: 4934
Teams:
YTFC: M Stech; L Ayling, J McAllister, J Edwards, B Webster; S Duffy, J Ralls, D Holmes (K Dawson), J Hayter; T Lawrence, Miller (K Moore)
DRFC: Johnstone, Quinn, Husband, Meite, Khumalo, Wellens, Keegan, Duffy (Cotterill), Coppinger, Brown, Bowery
Head to head (at Huish Park):
Yeovil 6 wins
Rovers 2 wins
Draws 4
Sky Bet Odds: Yeovil - 23/20; Draw 23/10; Rovers 11/5
Join Tom Biltcliffe and Darren Neagle on Rovers Player from 2:45pm.