Colchester United 1 Doncaster Rovers 2: Improvement continues to delight of Saunders

After taking a second-minute lead through David Cotterill, manager Dean Saunders soon saw his side pegged back when Magnus Okuonghae’s deflected shot went in off the post on the half hour mark.

But, two minutes after the interval, Rovers grabbed what proved to be the winning goal when midfielder Andrew Bond headed Cotterill’s free-kick into his own net.

Saunders, while delightedc with the win, admitted there was still plenty to work on for his team.

“There are still some things to iron out – we still look vulnerable going forward,” he said.

“I felt we started the game brilliantly and in the first 15 minutes played some great football.

“We made a few chances, scored a great goal and we might have taken a step back.

“I changed the formation

, so we weren’t as vulnerable in the centre of the pitch and to delay the counter attacks.”

Both sides were looking to get back to winning ways following successive League One defeats.

Having taken the lead, Rovers then allowed the hosts to come back into the game and goalkeeper Gary Woods could not hold onto a 25-yard free-kick by Bond in the 11th minute and the ball was scrambled for a corner.

There was a let-off for Rovers on 38 minutes when midfielder Marcus Bean hit the crossbar from the edge of the area with Woods well beaten.

After the unfortunate Bond had headed into his own net two minutes after the restart, Rovers continued to take the game to the home team.

Kyle Bennett fired over from 20 yards out before Chris Brown had a close-range goal-bound shot blocked by a defender. Bennett then forced a save from Mark Cousins.

Brown set up a shooting chance for Dave Syers six minutes later, but he miscued his shot when well-placed. As the home side pressed for an equaliser, the closest they went was in the 86th minute when substitute Anthony Wordsworth fired inches wide.

Colchester United: Cousins, Wilson, Okuonghae, Eastman, Rose, Bean, Izzet (Wordsworth 74), Bond (Morrison 63), Henderson, Sears, Massey. Unused substitutes: Pentney, Heath, Duguid, O’Toole, White.

Doncaster Rovers: G Woods, Quinn, Jones, McCombe, Syers (Harper 77), Spurr, Cotterill, Keegan, M Woods, Bennett (Husband 71), Brown (Hume 82). Unused substitutes: Sullivan, Martis, Blake.

Referee: G Sutton (England).