Doncaster boss Grant McCann was delighted to see his side shake off their home hoodoo with a comprehensive 3-1 win over Tranmere.
Doncaster had not won at home since the start of October with profligacy in front of goal proving to be their downfall in the search for three points.
But that was far from the case as they swept aside Tranmere with goals from Joseph Olowu, Patrick Kelly and Kyle Hurst – much to McCann’s delight.
“It lifts the monkey off our back,” he said. “People keep talking to me about our home form but we’ve been very strong here since February.
“Yes we’ve picked up some draws here that we couldn’t quite turn into wins this season but we love playing here, in front of our fans. You could see the place bouncing after we got the second and third goals.
“Our fans are everything and we want to make them happy when we play here. We want to send them home happy and we’ve done that.
“It took us a while to get going but after that we created some really good chances. I was really pleased with the attacking performance because we had two really good chances early on at Wimbledon last weekend but were wasteful after that.
“This was a completely different kettle of fish and I thought we were excellent from 20-odd minutes onwards.”
Tranmere found a late consolation through substitute Sol Solomon and finished the game with 10 men after captain Tom Davies was sent off for two bookable offences early in the second half.
Manager Nigel Adkins felt his side were unfortunate in conceding a second goal shortly after Davies’ dismissal following a comical incident for Jordan Turnbull in the build-up.
Turnbull ended up with his shorts around his ankles in an aerial challenge with Billy Sharp, with the ball breaking to Kelly to score.
And Adkins felt the referee should have awarded a free-kick.
He said: “The big turning point was the second goal in the game when Jordan had his pants pulled down – literally.
“Everyone can make their own opinion of it but the lad goes through and Jordan stops but the referee doesn’t give the free kick and he scores.
“Luke McGee made some really good saves after that and he had to because we lost our footing in the game.
“We’re disappointed because we came here with the confidence that we could win the game. We started both halves really well, the sending off had a big impact on the game and then there was some poor defending from us.
“The defending hasn’t been good enough and I’ve brought in Andy Crosby who is going to be on them a lot more now.”
