DRFC - Doncaster Rovers v Cardiff City preview

This season Rovers will really want to make The Keepmoat something of a fortress if we are going to have a successful Championship season.
Cardiff, last season's beaten FA Cup finalists will want to really push for promotion this season so it`s sure to be a very hard test.

Cardiff comes to The Keepmoat on the back of two victories at the start of this season. Following an open day 2-1 success against Southampton they beat Bournemouth by the same score line away from home in the Carling cup in midweek.
Doncaster have had mixed fortunes, after a fantastic opening day victory at Derby we slumped to a midweek cup exit at lowly Notts County. Some fans were not too disappointed and think that this season any cup run would be a hindrance to our main aim of Championship survival.


Team News
Rovers made five changes in midweek, Paul Heffernan returned after serving his three match suspension for his sending off in the play off semi final. I expect he will have to be happy with a place on the bench with O'Driscoll reverting back to the starting eleven from last Saturday

After two victories Cardiff should also have a similar side to last Saturday, one enforced change could be the return of Darren Purse in defence after the Bluebirds sold Glenn Loovens to Celtic on Thursday. Paul Parry will be pushing for a place in the starting eleven after his double at Bournemouth in midweek.

Previous meetings
The two teams haven't met since Doncaster's ill fated relegation out of the football League in the 97/98 season. On those occasions Doncaster managed a creditable 1-1 draw at Belle Vue before losing the return game 7-1.

This is Cardiff's first visit to The Keepmoat Stadium, they have previously met at Belle Vue on twelve occasions with Doncaster only winning one, Cardiff winning four and there have been seven draws. Rover`s solitary victory was in the 1951/52 season when winning 2-1.

Prediction
If the stats from Belle Vue are anything to go by then the most likely result will be a draw. With Doncaster selling over 8,000 season tickets they will be relying on the crowd to act as a twelfth man this season.
I am sure its going to be an entertaining game and against tough opposition I think a 2-2 draw will be the outcome.



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