Saturday 28th February, ko 3:00pm
Match Officials:
Referee: Edward Duckworth
Assistant Referee: Daniel Woodward
Assistant Referee: Wayne Grunnill
Fourth Official: Steven Copeland
Brian Barry-Murphy
"Everywhere we look, we see teams who have really high potential, and Doncaster have an exceptional team with exceptional individual players, especially in attacking areas, and a manager who has had real success recently with them. It's a brilliant game for us, and one that we're really excited for.
"In every single game there will be parts of that game that you want to improve. There were huge parts of the games against Wimbledon and Luton that I wanted to be better, so in every game we take a lot from it. There's always a tendency to see what's wrong, but for us it's all about getting better all the time. We have to try and perform as well as we can, and keep moving forward with that mindset that we are always going to improve, because we believe in it.
"When we have games where we don't perform to the level that we hope to, we see that as a real opportunity to improve and make it better. The key part of being a perceived winner is to be obsessive about how you train, to give yourself the best chance to win, and that's been evident in everything the players have done. We recovered on Sunday and trained on Monday morning, and it's not an exaggeration to say that we trained as well as we've trained all season on Monday. That's why I'm so grateful to have the players here, who we believe in so much, because of their dedication to how they train and play. I feel very lucky."
The boss concluded with a fitness update ahead of the weekend trip to South Yorkshire, with Isaak Davies back in contention for the clash.
"Isaak has trained fully this week, so fingers crossed he'll be available. David Turnbull came off with a hamstring injury at half time at Plymouth. Initial suggestions are that it's not a serious issue, but he hasn't trained yet. As such, I'd say the weekend will come too soon for him.
"Apart from that, all the players who were involved at the weekend should be good. Yousef [Salech] is back in Copenhagen due to some personal issues with his family, so he's spending time at home. He'll return to us on Monday or Tuesday and crack on with his rehabilitation.
"To get Rubin [Colwill] back in action for a longer period than he has done previously was really important for him, and he's making great progress."
- Doncaster Rovers have won just one of their last 13 home league games against Cardiff City (D7 L5), though drew their last 0-0 in January 2012.
- Cardiff City have won five of their last six league games against Doncaster Rovers (D1), including a 4-3 victory in the reverse fixture back in December.
- Doncaster have won each of their last two home league games against sides from Wales, they haven’t won more in succession in the EFL since April 1985 (three wins).
- Cardiff have lost just four of their last 23 League One games (W15 D4), though each defeat during that time has come on the road, losing their last 5-2 vs Plymouth Argyle.
Grant McCann
