Rovers assistant Richard O'Kelly pleased performance against Coventry

Roberts picked up an ankle injury in the closing stages of last night's goalless draw against leaders Coventry at the Keepmoat Stadium following a rash tackle by midfielder Aaron Gunnarsson. With James O'Connor resting a medial knee ligament injury, Rovers could be down to just one specialist full-back for the game at the Riverside if Roberts is ruled out. The injury, which many people thought worthy of a red card, served to take some of the gloss off a polished display by the Rovers. "It was an atrocious tackle in my opinion," said Rovers No 2 Richard O'Kelly. "I thought at the time that it was a bad tackle and it proved that on the DVD." Looking back on the game, O'Kelly said:"I was pleased with our defensive organisation and it was good to keep a clean sheet. "But it is not just the back-four; it is the whole team. "Our front runners, especially in the first half, put their back-four under a lot of pressure when they had the ball. "I still think that we've got work to do in the final third when we go forward. "But, especially in the first half, a lot of people made good runs behind the back-four and the pass almost made it. So people can see the pass and it is just a case of getting on to the second ball. "We've got some good players, such as James Hayter and James Coppinger, who run off the ball well and we've got to try and utilise them." Rovers made one enforced change with John Spicer (hamstring) being ruled out and John Oster being brought in as part of a tactical change. Said O'Kelly:"John had come on off the bench on Saturday and linked well with Copps, so that was a combination that we wanted to take another look at and I think that it worked quite well. "John Oster produced a bit of quality. What you would like to see is for him to get some reward for his killer balls and other things he does." Another man to catch the eye was Dean Shiels. "I suppose that he was a bit unfortunate to be left out on Saturday against Preston because he'd been working really hard, but we needed to change the system. "Probably in another six months he is going to be one of those players that you can't leave out of the side; he certainly reacted in the right way."