DRFC - Season review February

Rovers went into February on the back of an excellent January which had seen the club get out of the relegation zone.

The month was started with an FA Cup replay against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Prior to the kick off a one minutes silence was impeccably observed for ex Villa and Rovers midfielder Paul Birch who had died earlier in the week.

Two goals in the first twenty minutes by Steve Sidwell and John Carew gave Villa a comfortable lead.
Jason Price gave Rovers hope on the stroke of half time with his first goal of the season.
Villa wrapped up the game with just under half hour left when Nathan Delfouneso scored for the home side.

Rovers were quickly back in league action at Blackpool on the Saturday, they continued their good league form by recording their first ever victory at Bloomfield Road in 18 attempts.

In a topsy turvy encounter Rovers had to come from behind to take all three points. David Vaughan gave the home side the lead before Brian Stock equalised.

Sam Hird put Rovers into the lead early in the second half but the home side were level straight from the kick off thanks to DJ Campbell.

James Coppinger made sure all three points were going back to Doncaster with an excellent run and finish just past the hour.

Blackpool had Charlie Adam sent off inside the last fifteen minutes for kicking out at Rovers midfielder Richie Wellens.

Rovers entertained South Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday the following Saturday and once again recorded another first.

Paul Heffernan scored the only goal of the game to give Rovers their first ever home victory over the Owls.

Heffernan was at it again in the rescheduled game against Bristol City the following Tuesday, his early goal gained another three points for Rovers.

Rovers unbeaten league run of eight games came to a shuddering halt at Swansea City the following Saturday.

James Coppinger gave Rovers the perfect start scoring after eleven minutes but things went downhill after that.

Swansea equalised from the spot just before the half hour after James O`Connor pushed Alan Tate in the area.

City wrapped up the points with two goals from Jordi Gomez in the last twenty minutes.

To make matters worse James Coppinger was taken to hospital after a nasty incident on the stroke of half time and Richie Wellens was shown a red card for two bookable offences with five minutes remaining.

Rovers finished the month with another home victory, this time against Derby County.

Robbie Savage gave the visitors the lead before goals from Paul Heffernan and Mark Wilson earned Rovers another three points.

Apart from the defeat at Swansea another excellent month for Rovers in the league saw them climb to fifteenth in the table, ten points clear of the relegation zone.

Could Rovers keep up their great form of 2009 in March and ensure Championship football for the following season.

The review of March will follow next week.




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