Richie relieved as Rovers rally through to round two.
Penalty hero Richie Wellens lauded the team effort which saw Rovers overcome close rivals Leeds United 4-2 on penalties at Keepmoat Stadium.The veteran midfielder swept home to send Rovers through – after a 1-1 draw – and set up a second round date with Championship side Ipswich Town.
“It was obviously good because it’s Leeds, a massive club and a massive derby so it’s good to go through,” said the 35 year old.
“We showed a good reaction to going behind, they started off really well and I’m not sure that the sending off helped us when it came to controlling the game.
“They’ve got good players and with two banks of four and pace out wide then they were always a threat on the break as it was hard to break them down.”
Lewis Cook, who was shown a straight red card for a lunge on Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, had opened the scoring but was arguably outshone by his opposite number Harry Middleton.
“He (Harry) did great. They’ve got some good midfielders – Cook, Sam Byram, Alex Mowatt – who we’re talking big money moves for. Obviously Copps sat in there towards the end and it all helped contribute to what was a good team performance - it wasn't them doing badly, it was just good from us,” he said.
“We wanted to get the win and get everybody’s confidence going and then we'll start winning football games so it was a tricky one as we didn’t want extra time but we definitely didn’t want to lose either.”