AN ailing Doncaster Rovers shocked high-flying Swindon Town 1-0 on Saturday after which home boss Mark Copper claimed to have been ‘pleased’ with the performance, writes Danny Hall.

Paulo di Canio would have reacted to the same display by cancelling the players’ Christmas.

Chairman Lee Power said before the game that phone calls were now coming in checking on Cooper’s availability in the job market, such has been his success with Swindon in the first half of this season.

It is admirable that any boss should be loyal and protective of his players, particularly a young side like Swindon’s, but for someone who paid £25 for a ticket that 90 minutes was far from satisfactory.

Swindon have earned plenty of bouquets this season – Mark Clemmit and BBC’s League One Show were on hand to see what all the fuss was about on Saturday – but they have to take the brickbats, too, when they are deserved.

If Swindon had shown half the grit and determination in winning the game that Donny showed in protecting their unlikely lead, we would have won the game comfortably.

Centre back Nathan Thompson won the man of the match award, and that says it all. Swindon’s creative players didn’t create and the strikers failed to strike.

Wing backs Ben Gladwin and Nathan Byrne, normally a potent force, repeatedly ran down blind alleys and wasted countless chances to get the ball into dangerous areas.

Swindon started the game well enough with the sort of casual arrogance that suggested it was just a matter of time before the coup de grace would be delivered. But there were already signs of sloppiness in the most unlikely of areas.

Two of goalie Wes Foderingham’s early touches were a miscued clearance and a piece of miscontrol which was only inches away from being an own goal.

And then Doncaster were given a lead to protect. Jordan Turnbull, one of the few Swindon players I exonerate from any criticism, got the ball as well as a piece of Dean Furman in a last-ditch tackle and the ref pointed to the spot. One-time Swindon target Theo Robinson did the rest.

In the majority of cases that appeal would and should have been waived away, but things were evened up in the second half when Swindon were awarded a soft pen of their own.

From the moment Doncaster got their noses in front, they wasted time, feigned injury and collected bookings like they were going out of fashion – but they continued to deny Swindon space and, vitally, never conceded.

In the first half, Swindon mustered not one serious chance on target, while Foderingham had to produce the save of the match to stop a James Coppinger header making it 2-0.

In the opening minutes of the second half, Swindon generated more goal threat than they had in entire first 45 and came close when Jon Obika’s deflected shot came back off the post.

But that early tempo soon dissipated. With 25 minutes to go Andy Williams spurned a one-on-one chance that was wrapped up in Christmas tinsel, Michael Smith later rolled the afore-mentioned penalty tamely at Johnstone in the Rovers goal and then in stoppage time a Nathan Thompson header was cleared off the line.

But, in truth, every Doncaster player deserved to get something out of the game.

The Swindon players never stopped trying, of course, neither did many of them appear to go that extra yard to dig themselves out of the hole they had created.

With Bristol City losing, we could have been looking down from the top of the division.

Instead, the proud record of scoring in every league game since the middle of August came to an end and we were treated to excuses about the wrong kind of sand on the pitch!