Rampant Rovers have top two in their sights as they start to gel

DEAN SAUNDERS will be setting his sights on automatic promotion after a comfortable victory in the M18 derby.

His Doncaster Rovers side are now third in the table and have a game in hand on the top two, while Scunthorpe find themselves next to bottom.

Aiming for an immediate return to the Championship, Saunders said: “I’m pleased with the way we are progressing. We played really well and could have scored 10. We hadn’t put together a team just before the start of the season and I told the players if we could keep churning results out while they were gelling together we would be all right.

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“We worked on organisation and defence and it’s starting to come together at the other end of the pitch as well. When we won 3-1 at Carlisle on Tuesday night I said there was more to come and the players showed it.

“We earned the right to play when we battled for the first 15 minutes and then we started to move the ball around. I’ve got a good group of players with a lot of character, but whether we can keep it going remains to be seen.”

Doncaster went ahead when Christian Ribeiro chested David Cotterill’s cross into his own net under pressure from Martin Woods.

Rovers took full control after the break when Cotterill followed up after Iain Hume’s effort had been parried.

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Rob Jones made it 3-0 with a towering header and Billy Paynter added a fourth from 20 yards out soon afterwards.

Rovers had made one change from midweek with Paul Quinn replacing the injured Andy Griffin.

Scunthorpe chief Brian Laws fumed: “I’ve got more passion on the touchline than the type of players we have at this football club.”

Doncaster Rovers: G Woods, Quinn, Spurr, R Jones, Husband, Cotterill, Harper (Clingan 67), Keegan (Syers 77), M Woods (Brown 58), Paynter, Hume. Unused substitutes: Maxted, Martis, Blake, Mi Woods.

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Scunthorpe United: Mildenhall, Ribeiro, McChrystal, Canavan, Newey, Duffy, Walker (Mozika 74), Prutton, Ryan (Hawley 64), Clarke, Ellington (Barcham 65). Unused substitutes: Slocombe, Kennedy, Grella, Howe.

Referee: S Hooper (Wiltshire).

Man of the match: Iain Hume.

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