After the debacle against Port Vale at the weekend, Paul Dickov got the reaction he was asking for as Rovers grabbed a well-earned point against Preston.
The big talking point was the early exit of Rob Jones (who it appears is destructible after all), replaced by Liam Wakefield after picking up what looked to be another neck injury in the first minute.
But the makeshift defence, which included a game at centre-half for Reece Wabara, held out well with Marc De Val running the show from midfield and James Coppinger showing glimpses of his brilliance throughout.
The first half passed by with Coppinger the only player to go close to a goal with a shot from the angle deflected wide and a couple of long range efforts flying over, but it remained goalless.
It was going to take something special to break the deadlock and that’s what Chris Humphrey did on the hour, against the run of play. The winger smashed a superb volley past Jed Steer from 25 yards into the top corner to give the visitors the lead after a corner wasn’t cleared.
Despite Rovers pushing forward it appeared to just be one of the nights when Coppinger, Kyle Bennett and Cedric Evina all saw chances go begging as time ticked away for Dickov’s side.
However, Nathan Tyson came off the bench to replace Furman and the striker poked the ball home after a goalmouth scramble two minutes into added time to send the Keepmoat faithful home happy.
by Chris Donald
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