Rovers 5-1 demolition of Southend in their League One promotion play-off semi-final at the Keepmoat Stadium, set them up for an all-Yorkshire showdown against Leeds United at Wembley Stadium a week tomorrow.

If Rovers play only half as well as they did last night then Leeds will be in for a torrid time and the Wembley crowd, and and the millions of television viewers, will be in for another footballing occasion to savour.

Rovers have been promising a result like this all season and they couldn't have picked a better time to produce it.

Despite being held to a goalless draw on home soil in the first leg, no-one in the Rovers camp - not least manager Sean O'Driscoll - was writing the Shrimpers off in the return.

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How could they when Steve Tilson's side arrived at the Keepmoat Stadium boasting just one defeat in 16 games?

Admittedly Rovers had home advantage.

But there were fears among club officials and supporters alike that that would count for little on the night - a not unreasonable view considering the results of this and other seasons.

That may well have been the case had the crossbar not denied Southend striker James Walker after just eight minutes.

The first goal was always going to be important in a game between two well-matched sides and fortunately for home fans, who gave the team tremendous backing all night, it was Rovers who scored it.

Striker Jason Price, Rovers' biggest threat in the first leg, won his side a tenth-minute penalty when being pushed by centre-back Peter Clarke.

If Brian Stock, who again deputised well as captain for the injured Adam Lockwood, had any nerves he didn't show it as he coolly despatched the ball past Darryl Flahavan from the spot kick to make it 1-0.

Stock revealed after the game that he had practised taking spot kicks at the stadium earlier in the day in preparation for a possible penalty shoot-out, and had decided to put the ball down the middle.
"It was an important goal for us," he said.

"I think what happened tonight is that we scored the goals to match our performance.

"We've played like that before, for instance when we beat Millwall at the New Den. But to get our biggest home win of the the season against League One opposition in the manner in which we did, is good going into a final.

"I'm sure that it is going to be a bit more of a battle against Leeds and they will make it difficult for us.

"But if we can pass and move like we know that we can I don't see why we can't put in another good performance."

Having gone ahead Rovers found another gear and Price went close to making it 2-0 on 17 minutes.

But the Rovers fans didn't have to wait long to cheer a second goal.
Record signing James Hayter, who made an impressive return to the starting line-up in place of the suspended Paul Heffernan, picked out Paul Green at the far post and his header back across goal was put in his own net by Southend skipper Adam Barr-ett under pressure from Price.
Coppinger and Price both threatened before the former Exeter City man made it 3-0 on 39 minutes after carving a shooting chance for himself after clever footwork on the edge of the box.

The job looked done as the two teams headed for the dressing rooms at the break, but that wouldn't have been the message delivered to his players by O'Driscoll in his half-time team talk.

Shrimpers' boss Steve Tilson would no doubt have stressed the need for his side to score first, preferably early on, during his half-time talk.
When that didn't happen, and Rovers notched a fourth goal seven minutes after the restart, he knew the game was up and the Shrimpers' hopes of an immediate return to the Championship, dashed.

Once again it was that man Coppinger, whose performance will be long be remembered by all who saw it, who scored.

There looked to be nothing on when Coppinger collected the ball 25 yards out, but he jinked his way past two lots of defenders before beating Flahavan for the second time on the night to make it 4-0.
Coppinger has always had the ability to beat a defender but his trickery has often lacked an end product. Not last night.

If Coppinger could produce this sort of finishing, which wouldn't have looked out of place in the Premiership, on a regular basis, then he would find himself gracing the top flight

Although a deserving man-of-the-match, Coppinger would be the first to admit that it was far from been a one-man show.

There were tremendous performances all over the field, not least from the midfielders.

Richie Wellens, who faces a hernia operation the week after Wembley, gave Rovers a good hour on his return to the side before being replaced as he started to struggle.

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Barrett tested Rovers keeper Neil Sullivan with a cracking 25 yarder on 70 minutes, but apart from their late consolation goal that was the Shrimpers only effort of note in the second half.

Rovers scored five goals for only the second time at the Keepmoat Stadium from a free-kick ten minutes from time.

Green, who had another tremendous game, laid the ball off to Coppinger from an angled 25 yard free-kick and he curled it into the top left-hand corner to complete the first hat-trick of his Football League career.

No doubt Rovers, especially keeper Neil Sullivan, would loved to have kept a clean sheet.

But few of the Rovers fans would have begrudged their Southend counteparts, who never stopped trying to rally their favourites in a remarkable show of support, a consolation goal to cheer on their long way back to Essex.

The night belonged to Rovers, however, and on this sort of form they would be a credit to the Championship were they to beat Leeds in the final.

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