Opposition view: Boss McSheffrey surprised by how 'comfortable' Doncaster were against 'lethargic' Cobblers

Doncaster Rovers manager Gary McSheffrey was surprised by how ‘comfortable’ his side were during their 1-0 victory against Northampton on Saturday.

Unsurprisingly, it was a tight and closely-fought encounter between two teams who had made strong starts to the season, but Doncaster looked the more dangerous for most of the afternoon and eventually won out thanks to George Miller’s second-half penalty.

"I'm really pleased," said McSheffrey. "Apart from a couple of chances near the end of the game, I thought it was comfortable for us. We were expecting this to be our toughest game of the season so far but it was probably one of our most comfortable.

"It's never a comfortable scoreline but we dominated possession and territory and played in their half and managed the game really well. The stadium was a little bit lethargic and they didn't come at us with any sort of tempo and I think we probably drained that out of them by how we played in the first-half.

"We just made it uncomfortable for them. I thought we deserved to win without being fluent or free-flowing. You know what they are about and you know they have good players so you are expecting a tough game but I didn't think we got that.

"I felt we looked comfortably the better team with better leaders out there on the pitch and players wanting to take the ball, but every team has lethargic days and I think that was probably theirs today.”

On the penalty incident, McSheffrey added: "He’s wriggled his way out of the corner and got to the byline. Had he cut fully across him? I’m not sure. They seemed to be side by side but there is definitely contact.

"I haven’t seen it back but we shout for it because we feel Lee has got half a yard in front of him and there’s contact. There are swings and roundabouts with those decisions during a season but I thought it was a penalty.”