by Adam Stubbings

Rovers fought hard to earn a deserved point away at league leaders Burton last Saturday, stretching our unbeaten run to five games in all competitions going into the Christmas weekend. The team should take plenty of positives from the 3-3 draw despite losing the lead in the dying minutes, and the visit of local rivals Scunthorpe presents the perfect opportunity to get back to winning ways and give us all a belated Christmas present.

Fans of the Iron might not like it, but the ‘DN Derby’ has been dominated by the Red & White side of the border for almost a decade now. As has been mentioned often in the build-up, Rovers are currently on a seven game winning run against Scunthorpe, and we appear to be meeting at a favourable time once again. 8 points in the last four games compared to Scunthorpe’s 4 have seen us move ahead of the Clarets in the table, and victory on Boxing Day will give us a shot at ending 2015 back in the top half of the table and looking at a realistic push for the Play Offs in the New Year.

Rovers have netted at least 3 goals in each of the last four matches played between the teams at the Keepmoat, with a 5-2 drubbing on the final day of last season our latest triumph.  Nathan Tyson netted a hat trick that day, and also scored the winner at Glanford Park in a 2-1 comeback victory earlier in the season. Indeed our only defeat to Scunthorpe since we last met on Boxing Day (a 1-0 victory in our Division 3 championship campaign) was a 2-0 away loss dealt by Billy Sharp and Andy Keogh in one of Sean O’Driscoll’s first games in charge. Since then we have earned two draws, the second of which was a controversial game in which we had two men sent off and threw a two-goal lead to a last minute penalty, a match which also saw Sharp bag his first of many goals for the Rovers, and seven straight wins beginning with a 4-3 result that went down as one of the best matches in Keepmoat Stadium history, Shelton Martis heading home a late winner.

This tie really has seen it all over the years, and Darren Ferguson will know exactly what is expected of his team in such a fixture. He should have the majority of the squad available to call upon, with free kick hero Paul Keegan pushing for a start in midfield. Cedric Evina struggled against Burton but has a fantastic opportunity to hit the ground running again on Boxing Day, whilst Andy Williams and Nathan Tyson should both be afforded the chance to continue their recent good scoring runs. Gary McSheffrey and Tom Hopper are the long-term absentees for the visitors, with Stephen Dawson returning to the bench after a long lay-off in the home loss to Sheffield United last weekend.