Anyone who was at that game today could not be less than impressed by the way we played.
Quality football by everyone and another solid defensive display.
To even suggest that PdDhasn't got this team playing attractive exciting football is a joke.
The first half was a perfect performance, lacking only a goal.

The chances that came along were never really quite clear cut but only top class defending by the Bristol lads kept us out.

We continued to be on top in the second half and were well worth our lead.

The game turned on an incident after 70 minutes or so.
There was a 50-50 challenge about thirty yards from their goal anmd the ball broke nicely for us in a three on two ( i think) situation but with us looking likely to be able to fashion a scoring opportunity from it the ref stopped the game in an instant because the City player involved in the 50-50 was laid flat on the pitch.
The player proved not to be seriously injured and the ref restarted the game with the usual uncontested drop ball.
Within two minutes Smith had headed in.
Had the ref taken a split second longer to make his decision it could have resulted in us going 2-0 ahead.

If and maybe perhaps but it was a bad decision.

I also think that there was no way City would have scored today had Smith not been playing.

All our players looked very good today and special mention should go to Furman who was outstanding.
The bench was also very strong and i'm afraid donaldo that there was no room for your new idol today with the return of Bennett and Tyson.

Enough of the game then but i have to respond to your earlier pop at me donaldo.

For your information i should tell you that SoD is probably my favourite all time Rovers manager.
He took us to places i never thought i would ever see the Rovers reach and i will always give him my gratitude for that.
I only mentioned the comparison in results because it was just that, a comparison.
For you to suggest that i was doing something a little more darker is so far off the mark.
You actually did what you always do.
That is somehow contrive to find yet another reason to have a go at PD.

I do actually agree that we now have a strong and experienced squad.
The run of three defeats in fourteen matches reflects that doesn't it?
If we had had this squad together at the start of the season i believe we would be in the top four or five of the division right now.
With regards to your point about PD never having had a team in the top area of the L1, well just hang on a while because it is coming along soon.

I am just waiting for you to find some kind of silly reason to blame the manager for Kyle Bennett missing the last minute chance to win the game.

Just read the comments of Hound and have to agree with his assessment.

As I watched, I was thinking that the passing game was reminiscent of vintage O'Driscoll stuff.

Great performances throughout the team, totally dominating Bristol for long periods.

One area where I feel that we are lacking is a quality target man. Although Robinson put in a good industrious shift, closing down and generally putting himself about - I couldn't help feeling that we could have done with Chris Brown today - he can hold the ball up, has a good first touch and is an aerial threat at set pieces - none of which Robinson is particularly good at.

The last 2 weeks have been very entertaining - hopefully it will continue next week at home to Barnsley.

I've been critical of PD in the past - but these last couple of performances are changing my mind - we could be on the verge of something........

Hope this makes sense - as a large amount of alcohol has been consumed post-match!!

No team gets through a full game with zero mistakes, but some get close, and this was such a game for Rovers. Bristol defended extremely well and any one of their back line could have been their man of the match. Flint was very good. When I saw that Smith was playing I said that he would score, as he seems to have our number. Nevertheless, as has been said, it was like watching a SoD team playing at their best. Can there be higher praise?

I think the silence says it all.

"We didn't play well in the first half but it had nothing to do with Doncaster".
The above is a comment by the to55er Steve Cotterill !!
What a k n o b he is.

I have just watched the so called highlights on player and what a disgrace.

They showed two attempts from City in the first half, then went right to the Rovers goal and followed that with three or four City attempts leading to their goal.

They then showed Bennett's miss at the end, from what I heard we DID play yesterday, they didn't let City on the pitch on their own did they?

They did the same on the BBC website highlights.
Anyone who saw the game will know differently and the match stats back up what we were saying.

Looking forward to seeing more. It was less than 30 seconds on MotD and the 1m 52sec on the website suggests City had the better of it which was not so of course.

We are almost non-existent as far as the TV people are concerned; they discussed Peterborough after last week's match and the previous week they actually featured the game at Swindon but still managed to avoid any but the briefest mention of us.

I took heart from Cotterill’s comments. He refused to agree with his interviewer’s prompt that our goal was fortunate because it came off the post. Instead he said we had the better of the first half and deserved the goal we got. Praise indeed in my book.

I still want to see the man who Hound has dubbed my idol in the team even though I have never seen him play. What about a debut start at Ashton Gate? If he could ever begin to emulate Alick, it would be a symbolic place to begin.

I suspect that Cotterill is by a long chalk my least favourite manager. Graceless and wholly charmless.

Johnstone loan extended for a month to January 28th. Only Butler to sort out now.

Thanks hound.
Still in tenerife

Two and a half year deal gets Butler for Rovers.

This is good news and the two and a half year deal shows encouraging "long termism". Let's hope that this commitment beyond the end of this season becomes a feature of club policy now.