Andy Butler confident Doncaster Rovers would cope without a striker better in the future

Butler was forced to play Madger Gomes as his lone front man for Tuesday’s defeat at Crewe Alexandra after Fejiri Okenabirhie and Omar Bogle were ruled out through injury.

Rovers struggled for real threat throughout the game without their usual focal point in attack.

But the Rovers boss expects his side would cope better in the future if they were to find themselves in a similar situation.

“I believe as a staff we’ve addressed these issues,” he said. “You have to prepare for every eventuality. It’s not always going to be plain sailing and you have to have other options if things go wrong.

“Obviously it wasn’t ideal losing both strikers at once. But players know the roles and responsibilities in each position because it’s important to know when you’re playing alongside people.

“The players understand there will be places that have to be filled. It’s not ideal playing people out of position but there are times when needs must.

“We have the right set of characters within this group to do it with no questions asked.

“We never had that penetrative run in behind and that threat to stretch the game on Tuesday.

“You try to play from the back in different ways and Omar and Fej give you a big presence.

“On Saturday it will be a different game from Tuesday. We’ve looked at it and we move onto a strong Northampton team.”

Bogle is unlikely to feature against Northampton Town but Okenabirhie is on course for a return to action.

Butler explained that it is not currently possible to call in a player from the club’s youth set up at short notice due to Covid-19 regulations.

“There is no striker to come in from the youth team at that short notice,” he said.

“They have a separate bubble to ours and if you wanted to bring someone into our bubble they would need a Covid test which is sent down to Leicester and then wait for the results.

“With such a short turnaround, it’s impossible to do.”

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