Tuesday 26th January 2016 (7:45pm), Sky Bet League One, Keepmoat Stadium.
Doncaster Rovers will look to leapfrog their opponents Port Vale in the Sky Bet League One table on Tuesday evening – and dish out some revenge – when Rob Page’s side visit South Yorkshire.The Valiants comfortably swept Rovers aside 3-0 in the reverse fixture at Vale Park earlier in the season and, but for German stopper Thorsten Stuckmann, it could have been more.
Rovers’ loss to Vale was their first on the road this season came in a spell where they lost 7 out of 9 away from home, however Darren Ferguson’s side are a different beast and made it seven unbeaten as away from the Keepmoat Stadium with a gritty point at Fleetwood on Saturday.
Tuesday’s meeting will be the 50th between the clubs in all competitions and the 13th since Rovers returned to the Football League in 2003 with Vale holding the upper hand historically (22 wins to 19) and also recently with three consecutive wins.
The Staffordshire based club did the double against Paul Dickov’s troops in the 14/15 season – scoring six in the process – and had Sam Foley, Uche Ikpeazu and Byron Moore to thank for ensuring the three points this campaign.
Ferguson’s recent loan acquisitions of Lynden Gooch and Eddy Lecygne will provide a welcome boost to a squad that has been hit by injuries of late while they could face a familiar face in former forward Theo Robinson who recently signed for Vale.
TEAM NEWS: Andy Butler, Harry Middleton, Cameron Stewart and Nathan Tyson look set to miss out. Conor Grant should shake off a dead leg to feature, while there could be home debuts for the aforementioned Gooch and Lecygne.
Vale Park (4775)
Sky Bet League 1
DRFC 0
PVFC 3 (Foley, 35; Ikpeazu, 46; Moore, 88)
Last time out: Sat 22nd August 2015:
PVFC - J Alnwick, R Inniss, R Duffy, B Purkiss, C Dickinson, A Grant, B Moore, Ebo Andoh (C Daniel, 69), S Foley, L Dodds, U Ikpeazu (A Leitch-Smith, 76)
DRFC - T Stuckmann, A Butler, L McCullough, G MacKenzie, A Sinclair, R Wellens, H Middleton (C Main, 45), C Evina (B Whitehouse, 58), J Coppinger, R Chaplow, A Williams
Head to head league results (in Doncaster):
Rovers – 13
PVFC – 5
Draws – 5
WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Rovers 11/10, Draw 13/5, PVFC 11/4.
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