Second half goals from Mathieu Baudry and Andy Williams secured a hard fought victory for Rovers against Notts County.
Doncaster Rovers 3
(Coppinger 43, Baudry 47, Williams 90+5)
Notts County 1
(Duffy 19)
Keepmoat Stadium
Sky Bet League Two
Tuesday 14 March 2017
Attendance: 5,760, (733 away)
Rovers made it 22 league games unbeaten at the Keepmoat Stadium as they came from behind to beat Notts County 3-1.
County took an early lead through Richard Duffy before James Coppinger brought Rovers level just before half time. The home side’s quality showed in the second half as goals from Mathieu Baudry and Andy Williams sealed the win.
Darren Ferguson named an unchanged starting XI for the third game in a row with Alfie May continuing to partner John Marquis in attack.
Rovers had the best chance of the opening stages, when Conor Grant’s low cross from the right found May on the edge of the six yard box but the forward could only glance his effort wide of the far post.
The visitors made them pay for the missed opportunity as the game approached the 20 minute mark, a cross into the box from Mark Yeates fell at the feet of Duffy who fired under Ian Lawlor and into the net to put Notts County in front.
Rovers were then forced to try and take the game to their opponents, and had a couple of half chances, most notably Marquis heading Coppinger’s cross straight at Adam Collin in the County goal.
The home side had a great chance to level things up after 32 minutes, Coppinger managed to keep hold of the ball inside the area and cut back for Craig Alcock whose goal-bound shot was blocked by a County defender.
Rovers did get their equaliser just before half-time, Matty Blair’s ball in from the right found Coppinger un-marked in the box and he finished smartly into the corner to make it 1-1.
They could have gone in front before the interval, Tommy Rowe did brilliantly down the left to dig out a cross which found Coppinger at the back post but the captain’s shot was blocked.
HALF-TIME | Doncaster Rovers 1–1 Notts County.
Rovers got the second half off to a great start, a corner was worked back to Coppinger, who floated a ball in that was met by a bullet header from Mathieu Baudry for his third goal of the season.
Notts County then had a great chance to hit back when Michael O’Connor’s in-swinging free kick found Duffy who headed wide with the goal at his mercy.
The visitors then looked to have levelled proceedings as a corner to the back post was nodded into the net by Haydn Hollis, only for the centre-half to be penalised by the linesman for a foul in the build-up.
Both sides went close late on, with Ian Lawlor smothering former Rovers midfielder Jonathan Forte’s shot before Gary McSheffrey curled a left footed free kick just over the bar at the other end.
Rovers wrapped the game up in stoppage time, a County corner was cleared leaving McSheffrey with space to run into and he played in fellow substitute Andy Williams who finished smartly from 25 yards to make it 3-1.
FULL-TIME | Doncaster Rovers 3–1 Notts County.
ROVERS XI | Lawlor, Mason, Alcock, Butler, Baudry, Blair (Lund, 71), Rowe, Grant, Coppinger (C) (McSheffrey, 71), May (Williams, 87), Marquis.
ROVERS SUBS | Marosi, Middleton, Evina, Longbottom.
NOTTS COUNTY XI | Collin, Tootle, Bola, Duffy, Hollis, Grant, Yeates (Hewitt, 54), O’Connor (C), Milsom (Forte, 78), Smith (Ameobi, 60), T. Campbell.
NOTTS COUNTY SUBS | Loach, A. Campbell, Clackstone, Dickinson.