Doncaster Rovers 1 Exeter City 0: Cool hand Luke Molyneux ensures patience pays off
When it comes to their transfer business this summer, Doncaster Rovers have been admirably impatient but they had to wait 88 minutes for Luke Molyneux to turn a decent opening day into a very good one.
As is his way, Grant McCann has been quick off the mark in the transfer market and the results were there for the 8,688-strong crowd to see as they controlled their season-opener against Exeter City.
Despite four debutants from the start – plus Robbie Gotts, Damlo Ajayi, and Sean Grehan from the bench – and a goalkeeper in Thimothee Lo-Tutala who was back after a year with parent club Hull City, the League Two champions looked a cohesive unit at home in their new surroundings.
All they lacked was a cutting edge until Molyneux provided it from the penalty spot.
Just as it looked like they might have to settle for a 0-0, Matty Pearson's header was handled by Sil Swinkles, and Molyneux – a player who looked very ready to be playing League One football almost as soon as he joined two years ago – drilled his penalty into the net.
It was no less than the home team deserved.
That said, it was Exeter who ought to have scored in the first half. Jayden Wareham had the first chance of the match when his strike partner Sonny Cox got in behind Pearson and picked him out for a chance he pulled well wide from inside the six-yard box.
Pearson, making his debut after joining from Huddersfield Town in the summer, put a dangerous Reece Cole free-kick against his own crossbar in the 18th minute after James Maxwell fouled the Grecians captain.
But apart from a deflected Wareham header wide towards the end, most of the game was played at the Exeter end.
Jamie Sterry came inside from right-back to tee up George Broadbent for a shot pulled a long way off target.
Sterry also picked out Molyneux for a chance after a move which started on the left with James Maxwell charging the ball down.
Maxwell had a shot blocked from the corner won by Molyneux's first real run at the defence.
It was a blow when Sterry groggily came off midway through the first half, knocked out when Joe Whitworth came for a cross from the left and took him as well as the ball. Owen Bailey moved to full-back.
New left-winger Glenn Middleton was looking dangerous, putting over a cross from a very long-range give-and-go with Pearson, then cleverly beating his man seconds later, ony for the cross to elude everyone.
Doncaster still had most of the ball at the start of the second half, but their threat was subdued.
Harry Clifton did not quite get hold of a shot from the edge of the area, just as Gotts was unable to rearrange his feet to exactly where he needed them to get full purchase on a strike.
Molyneux just ran out of pitch as he controlled an almost brilliantly pinged pass from Maxwell.
At the other end, Wareham very nearly got a touch to a right-wing cross under pressure from Pearson, and Clifton had to get back well to shut down a counter-attack from a Rovers corner.
McCann shuffled his back, introducing Ajayi, clever and creative in the hole, Jordan Gibson and Jack Senior to re-energise the left, and Billy Sharp.
It took a while to have the desired effect, but with 10 minutes to go, Rovers' threat level went up a couple of notches.
Gibson and Senior combined well on the left, but Pearson produced a conversion, not a shot, from the edge of the area.
Then, Joe Whitworth turned a Molyneux shot to Ajayi with a lot of net to aim at, only for his effort to hit the back of Ed Turns.
For the pessimists, it might have been a warning it was going to be another one of those days, but Doncaster fed off the encouragement, as professional sportsmen always should.
Connor O'Riordan glanced wide with a header, missing the chance to cap off an accomplished debut at centre-back.
So when referee Ross Joyce pointed to the spot in the 88th minute, Molyneux was presented with a pressure kick in front of the Black Bank.
He buried it.
Ambitious Doncaster will need more cutting edge to be the team their manager expects them to be at this level, but as starts go, it was a pretty good one.
Doncaster Rovers: Lo-Tutala; Sterry (Gotts 27), Pearson, O'Riordan, Maxwell (Senior 74); Broadbent, Bailey; Molyneux (Grehan 90+4), Clifton (Ajayi 63), Middleton (Gibson 74); Hanlan (Sharp 63).
Not used: Lawlor.
Exeter City: Whitworth; Turns, Fitzwater, Swinkels; McMillan (Dean 63), Cole (Birch 76), Francis (McDonald 58), Brierley, Niskanen; Wareham (Aitchison 58), Cox (Wilson 82).
Not used: Bycroft, Cummins.
Referee: R Joyce (Teesside).