Rovers’ march towards League One continued on Tuesday when Notts County arrived at the Keepmoat Stadium.
The last month or so has been, if anything, frustrating as a Rovers fan, with teams seemingly happy to park those metaphorical buses and thwart the exciting play we’ve seen in the previous months. And this was no different.
Notts opened the scoring after around 20 minutes with one of the most League Two goals you’ll see. Defender Richard Duffy poking home from close range.
But, despite Kevin Nolan’s side taking until Wednesday to execute every set piece, Lord James Coppinger took it upon himself to bring Rovers level with a well-taken finish just before half time. Clichè alert; a good time to score.
If just before the break is a good time to score, then just after is up there too. We did both. Mathieu Baudry heading in to kill any hope of an away resurgence, we thought.
However, Notts then replaced 65-year old Alan Smith with the youthful 62-year old Shola Ameobi and had a goal disallowed for something nobody saw as they pushed for a point. We never make it easy for ourselves.
But the game was finally wrapped up in added time when Andy Williams cleared a corner with the keeper up, and got on the end of Gary McSheffery’s break to score his first since Boxing Day, also against Notts County.
Not pretty but a job well done. We’re almost there.
One game at a time. We go again.
by Chris Donald
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