Doncaster Rovers v MK Dons Dec 22nd.

Well lads and lasses, it looks like Fuzzy has departed the site, I have had no contact from him, so here goes. By the way, I put this up before but missed posting on the MK Dons site, got back to ours and it had gone so here we go again.

Following last Saturday's heaviest home defeat of the season 4-1 to Coventry City, this weekend we take on MK Dons who are one place and one point behind us in the table.

News from the Keepmoat is that the Board met a couple of days ago and Steve Uttley confirmed the following.

1) James Coppinger WILL return from his loan spell at Forest and WILL be part of the rest of the season. He should be available for the Blades game.

2) The Board ( owners ) will make funds available to Dean, to fund Copps and for other signings, some existing and others new, to enlarge the size of the squad. Dean says he may let a couple go to get three in.

3) Sheff Utd have sold out their allocation for the North stand and will get more for the East stand.

4) As from now the East stand will become the Barter Card stand following a sponsorship deal this week.

Captain Rob Jones and David Cotterill have both expressed disappointment at the nature of last week's defeat by Coventry. Cotterill says he was ill on Friday and should not have played. Dean Saunders has held up his hands and admitted it was his mistake to ask Dave to start the game.

Both players said that personal goals were secondary to club goals and that the quality of the players in the dressing room and the team spirit amongst them was second to none. " There are many players who have been there and done that", said Jones, "they all have the same aims for the club".

Manager Dean Saunders says "I've got a very honest group of players at the club, but we probably don't have the tools to chase a game". Although disappointed, he said, " there were lessons to be learned from the game, you could see our weaknesses last Saturday, but, to be honest, we havn't defended like that all season".

Cotterill will definitely be available for tomorrow, and Martin Woods and Dave Syers are 50/50 for the game. If fit, Woods will probably replace Kyle Bennett who has found it difficult to regain his form after 6 weeks on the injured list. Jamie McCombe and Shelton Martis are both likely to start on the bench.

Even under their old name of Wimbledon, the teams have only met on six previous occasions, Rovers winning three, MK Dons ( Wimbledon) two with one draw.

MK Dons, who Rovers Chairman John Ryan says, should give Wimbledon the Dons title back, are having very good season and scoring lots of goals in the process. They are managed by Karl Robinson and recently won the much awaited, first meeting with AFC Wimbledon, when they met in the second round of the FA Cup. They will be there or there abouts at the end of the season.

Referee David Webb ( Lancashire).

Assistants Paul Cook and Ken Haycock

Wayne Grunnill is fourth official.