Saturday 28th November 2015 (3pm), Sky Bet League One, Ricoh Arena.
Doncaster Rovers head to table toppers Coventry City on Saturday aiming to close the eight point gap to the play-off zone and inflict upon the Sky Blues their first home defeat of the season.Though Tony Mowbray’s Sky Blues had been full of goals – registering 14 in four wins prior to Tuesday’s stalemate at Bradford City – they will come up against a mean Rovers defence that has kept four clean sheets in its last five games.
Ian Henderson’s quick-fire double for Rochdale last week is the only blot on Rovers’ copybook in the last 532 minutes of football.
A repeat of last season’s double over the Sky Blues wouldn’t go amiss for Darren Ferguson’s side either, though the Scot said that last season’s events won’t have a bearing on the outcome.
Rovers ko’d City with a superb performance on Boxing Day 2014 and comfortably ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Andy Butler and Harry Forrester before the midway point in the first half. Coventry later had Adam Barton and James Maddison – both second bookable offences – sent off as they were reduced to nine men.
In the return, it was Coventry who opened proceedings thanks to Reading loanee Dominic Samuel who notched less than five minutes in to the game. A rousing second half performance from Rovers – started by Richie Wellens – was forthcoming however and the visitors went on to turn the game on its head thanks to further strikes from Johnson Clarke-Harris and Forrester.
Saturday will be the thirteenth meeting between the pair since 2008/09 having not met for close to 60 years previously.
TEAM NEWS: Luke McCullough, Gary MacKenzie and Harry Forrester could be in line for recalls to the squad of 18. However Richard Chaplow, Paul Keegan, Mitchell Lund, Curtis Main, Rob Jones and Dany N’Guessan will be absent.
Attendance – 8699
Ricoh Arena
League One
DRFC 3 (Wellens, 50; Clarke-Harris, 72; Forrester, 84)
CCFC 1 (Samuel, 5)
Last time out (Sat 21st March 15):
CCFC - L Burge, C Stokes, A Martin, J Willis, M Pennington, J Fleck, A Barton (S Odelusi, 45), J O'Brien(S Jackson, 79), G Ward, D Samuel, F Nouble (A Phillips, 69)
DRFC - S Bywater, R Wabara, A Butler, L McCullough, E Stevens, A Razak (H Forrester, 23), D Furman, K Bennett, R Wellens, N Tyson (J Clarke-Harris, 61), C Main (T Robinson, 89)
Head to head league results (in Doncaster):
Rovers – 3
CCFC – 7
Draws – 1
WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Rovers 15/4, Draw 13/5, CCFC 8/11
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