Saunders’ happy travellers are going places
PRESTON NE ......0 DONCASTER ......3
DONCASTER manager Dean Saunders admitted he was loving life on the road after Doncaster stretched their unbeaten run away from home to 11 matches with a convincing win over Preston.
David Syers’ goal after 58 seconds set the visitors on their way before David Cotterill’s fortuitous free-kick and Billy Paynter’s penalty sealed the points.
Former Wrexham boss Saunders admitted his side show no fear on their travels – treating every match the same.
“We played well and controlled the game throughout,” he said.
“They didn’t even have a chance, did they? We worked on the set piece for the opening goal and it’s nice when it comes off.
“We’ve treated the away games exactly as the same as the home games and we probably find it easier to win away.
“It’s the same football pitch. What’s the difference? The crowd can probably affect the home team. It’s psychological.”
Doncaster attacked from the first whistle, and though Preston were unhappy at thedecision to award Rovers a corner, they had only themselves to blame for the poor defending that followed.
Cotterill’s low corner to near post was met on the volley by an unmarked Syers and his looping effort sailed over Thorsten Stuckmann via the crossbar.
The Deepdale faithful were vocal in their disappointment at their side’s abject performance, and they fell further behind when Cotterill’s cross from wide on the left evaded everyone and nestled in the home team’s net.
Will Hayhurst fired just wide from distance after cutting inside while substitute Anthony Elding also missed the target.
Paynter should arguably have been awarded a penalty when he was brought down by Luke Foster inside the box midway through the second period, but he was finally given his chance to score from the spot on 75 minutes as Kyle Bennett was upended by Hayhurst.
The former Leeds striker sent Stuckmann the wrong way. Preston are have now failed to win any of their last eight league matches, and captain John Mousinho made no excuses.
“It wasn’t a good day. It seems like a recurring process where we have a few solid results and then we’ve gone and produced that performance,” he said.
“In terms of the game itself it was bizarre.We’d prepared off the back of the Bury game and were looking to get a heavy home win which we’ve been lacking recently. “But within 30 seconds we were turning around having not defended the corner at all and that set the tone for the whole afternoon.”