In the thick of a heated promotional battle, Doncaster Rovers will welcome Port Vale to Eco-Power Stadium in South Yorkshire on Saturday.
Doncaster began 2025 with a dramatic 2-1 victory versus Fleetwood Town, moving up to second in League Two as a result, two points above the Valiants, who sit fifth following a 0-0 draw at home to Cheltenham Town.
Match preview
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They left it late on New Year's Day, but ultimately, Rovers got the job done, extending their unbeaten run at home to five matches in this competition.
Three times in League Two this season, Grant McCann has seen his side score a winner with fewer than 10 minutes remaining, and those six bonus points are currently the difference between second place and 10th.
Saturdays at Eco-Power Stadium tend to bring good things to this club, who have suffered just one defeat in their previous 15 league fixtures at home on that day of the week, failing to score in just one of those instances.
While they are positioned to claim one of three automatic promotional places right now, one defeat could change everything as a mere three points currently separate them from Grimsby Town, who are eighth and on the outside of the playoff picture.
This team have won their opening league game of a calendar year on back-to-back occasions but have never claimed more than one domestic victory in January since returning to League Two in 2022-23.
Rovers have not won consecutive league contests in January since their 2020-21 League One campaign, when they won all four of their matches played that month.
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It may be a new year, but we witnessed the same old struggles for Port Vale in front of goal Wednesday as we saw at the end of 2024.
In five of their previous six League Two affairs, Darren Moore's men have failed to find the back of the net, while they are now winless in eight successive matches in this competition.
January has not been good to this team in recent memory, as the club from Burslem are winless in seven consecutive league contests played this month.
That said, they are well ahead of their pace from a season ago, claiming 38 points after 24 encounters in this campaign, a dozen more than they had at this stage in 2023-24.
Port Vale have lost three of their previous four away league games against Yorkshire-based sides, conceding 11 goals across that time.
However, the Valiants seem to enjoy coming to Doncaster, winning their last two football league away contests against them, and they have an opportunity to claim three consecutive away triumphs there on Saturday for the first time since 1980.
Team News
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Earlier this week, the Rovers were missing Jordan Gibson due to a red card suspension, with Kyle Hurst taking his place on the left wing, which was the only change to their starting 11.
Owen Bailey opened the scoring for Doncaster against Fleetwood in the latter stages of the opening half, and Billy Sharp netted the winner in the 92nd minute.
Only four players who started their final league contest of 2024 were in the Port Vale starting 11 on Wednesday, Ben Heneghan, Connor Hall, Ryan Croasdale and Rico Richards.
Tom Sang was eligible to return from his red card suspension in midweek but did not see the field against Cheltenham, while Ben Amos replaced Connor Ripley in goal, collecting a clean sheet with four stops.
Doncaster Rovers possible starting lineup:
Sharman-Lowe; Sterry, Olowu, McGrath, Maxwell; Bailey, Broadbent; Molyneux, Sharp, Gibson; Ironside
Port Vale possible starting lineup:
Amos; Clark, Heneghan, Hall; Hart, Croasdale, Chislett, Sang; Richards, Hackford, Tolaj
We say: Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Port Vale
Doncaster always seem to find a way, and they are facing a side struggling to develop much continuity of late and lacking confidence in the attacking third.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
