Doncaster Rovers notebook: New fixture date, Panenka envy and huge blow for promotion rivals

Panenka 'envy'

The win at Hull City on Sunday saw Rovers end their penalty hoodoo. They'd lost their last two shoot-outs, to Crewe in the play-offs last season and then Man United's under-21s this term in the EFL Trophy.

But a top save from Ted Sharman-Lowe and some cool-headed spot-kicks from his colleagues ensured a day to remember for those in the packed away end in East Yorkshire. Ben Close pulled off an outlandish 'Panenka' chip on his turn - something that irked his teammate Luke Molyneux as he was planning to do it before Close got in there first.

"It annoyed me a little bit because I was about to do that!" Molyneux said tongue-in-cheek. "It was a great pen though and he's got a bit of balls to do that!"

Morecambe date confirmed

Rovers' exploits in the FA Cup means that the fourth round tie at home to Crystal Palace game takes precedent over the proposed trip to Chesterfield (also scheduled for the weekend of February 8).

Whilst a new date for that has yet to be announced, it's now been confirmed when the trip to Morecambe will take place. The match with Derek Adams' side was pencilled in for last weekend but both sides were obviously busy playing in the world's oldest cup competition. The trip to the Mazuma Mobile Stadium is now in the diary for Tuesday, February 18. Kick-off will be 7.45pm.

Fixture roulette

Talking of fixture changes, it's anyone's guess when the Palace clash will take place. Plenty of ire has been directed towards the FA and its broadcast partners for the slapdash scheduling of the third round ties. Incredibly, they've been spread across six consecutive days (although three are taking place on Tuesday night owing to weekend postponements).

Whilst it is not a foregone conclusion that the clash with the Eagles will be screened for TV, it's a decent bet given Rovers are the lowest-ranked side definitely through (Non-league Dagenham play their tie on Monday night). The TV picks are usually announced within a few days of the completion of the current round so it's likely to be released by the end of this coming week.

McCann talks about latest debutant

Ethan Ennis made a quickfire Rovers debut at Hull, just two days after arriving on loan from Manchester United. The winger came on for fellow January signing Rob Street towards the end of normal time and ended up playing almost 40 minutes as the tie went to penalties.

Reflecting on his showing, McCann told the Free Press: "I think Ethan came on and did a job for the team more than showing his attacking qualities today.

"But I think we'll see more of him in the league games when he's in higher positions and taking people on. But he was playing against a top-class defender in Lewie Coyle so it was a challenge. He only trained a couple of days and he's still getting to know everybody but we believe we've signed one of Man United's top talents and he's going to be exciting for us."

Lowe blow

One of Rovers' promotion rivals have suffered a huge mid-season blow. Walsall's Nathan Lowe is the top scorer in the division with 15 goals in what has been a hugely successful loan spell. One of those goals came in the Boxing Day victory over Rovers.

Now though, his parent club Stoke City have activated a recall clause. Despite the news, Walsall are runaway leaders, sitting 12 points clear of second-placed Crewe with a game in hand to boot.