Port Vale v Doncaster Rovers: Butler happy to lead ‘11 captains at Rovers’

Chief Paul Dickov has long maintained that merely being there or thereabouts the top six at this stage of the season is the only important element, with positions not mattering until the final throes of the season.

But captain Andy Butler, whose third win in four games with the armband on Tuesday night saw Rovers climb into the play-off places, believes otherwise.

For the big central defender – on loan from neighbours Sheffield United – the manner in which Rovers took their place in the all-important top-six will have been a body blow to their fellow promotion hopefuls.

“It’s a bit of a confidence booster as much as anything,” said Butler, after Richie Wellens’s 90th-minute strike sunk Crewe Alexandra and elevated Rovers into sixth spot.

“Teams will have been looking at the results on Tuesday night thinking 1-1 between Donny and Crewe, we’ll take that, and then we pop up in the 90th-minute and score the winner and it can crush teams.

“I know what it’s like sat watching the results come in, so it can be a confidence-booster for us and a ‘devastater’ for other teams.”

Butler is set to continue with the armband again today at Port Vale, four games after taking on the duty ahead of Rovers’ home game with his former club Walsall.

“We lost against Walsall, but three wins out of four isn’t bad,” said Butler.

“But it doesn’t change my game whether I’m captain or not captain. I’m just as loud when I’m not captain. The old cliche is you want 11 captains and that’s what we’ve got here.”