by Adam Stubbings

Yet another dramatic finish at the Keepmoat saw Rovers pick up a gutsy point against promotion contenders Gillingham last time out, as a 2-0 goal deficit was wiped out through a couple of superb late goals from Cameron Stewart and Andy Williams. Rovers had been poor for much of the game, but came alive in the closing minutes to steal a point and stay in the top half.

It will be a much different proposition for Rovers this weekend as a wintry trip to the seaside awaits and a meeting with struggling Fleetwood Town. The Cod Army sit eight points and eight places behind us but it was not too long ago that we were side-by-side and scrapping to pull away from the relegation zone. Darren Ferguson has engineered a superb run of form to achieve that in the last couple of months, but Fleetwood remain in the mire. Like ourselves, the opposition have also changed their manager this season with Graham Alexander, the man who took the club into the third tier for the first time in their history, dismissed in September after a bad start and replaced by Steven Pressley, the former Coventry manager who once turned out for Rovers in a pre-season friendly whilst on trial during the latter stages of his playing career.

Indeed it will be a very different prospect from the last meeting between the clubs, as Paul Dickov got one over on Alexander and earned Rovers a first win of the season and ultimately what proved to be Dickov's final victory as manager, as he was sacked after a defeat in our following league game against last weekend's opponents Gillingham. James Coppinger and Curtis Main netted first half goals to secure a 2-0 win, that goal from Main his only one of the campaign thus far. Our only previous trip to Fleetwood came last season and saw a disappointing 3-1 defeat, Nathan Tyson netting for a lacklustre Rovers on a sunny autumn afternoon at Highbury. These results along with an extremely tedious 0-0 draw in April of last year mean it is one win, one draw and one loss for both teams in historical meetings between the two.

The status of Cameron Stewart remains up in the air after his sickening neck injury late on last Saturday, but Ferguson moved to secure the loan signing of Sunderland U21 midfielder Lynden Gooch late in the week to offset this and add a bit more attacking depth to the squad.