VETERAN striker Gareth Taylor has been one of Doncaster Rovers' best players in their opening games in the Championship.
One of the few players to impress in Saturday's 2-0 defeat against Queen's Park Rangers at Loftus Road - where he again showed up well in the air - Taylor looks set to retain his place in the side to entertain Coventry City tomorrow.
Coventry bos
s Chris Coleman knows from personal experience Taylor can be a handful, having spent together at Crystal Palace in the 90s.
Taylor was signed as cover for Jason Price during the January transfer window and his first-team outings were limited last season due to the Welshman's good form.
But he took full advantage of Price being sidelined after pre-season ankle surgery to stake a claim for a place in manager Sean O'Driscoll's starting line in the season's opener at Derby County.
He was teamed with former Bournemouth hotshot James Hayter and Lewis Guy in a new-look three-man attack and O'Driscoll has so far kept faith with the three men.
"We're all different players and all bring something different, which is good," said Taylor.
"But it is not all about attack. We also all have to do our share of defensive duties otherwise the formation we play doesn't work.
"If the front three don't do their share of defensive duties, it means the other seven outfield players have to do a hell of a lot of work. The plus point about playing with the formation that we do is it gives you a lot of options going forward.
"I am enjoying being back in the Championship, playing against a different level of players and better stadiums.
"The finances are a lot bigger than when I last played in the Championship. Clubs are paying a couple of million for a striker which was pretty much unheard off. It was only the Premier League who were doing that sort of thing at that time.
"There is also more strength in depth with the experts saying there could be as many as 14 teams who could potentially do well this season.
"It was the same last season and most teams could beat anybody else on a given day.
"We've made a decent start but I wouldn't like to try and predict where we will finish, though obviously we want to do as well as we possibly can.
"In any case it is too early to call it after just three games. We'll have a better ideas after we've played 10 games.
"We've certainly got to be looking at winning the majority of our home games. But to be honest, every game in this division is massive whether you are playing home or away.
"Coventry certainly won't be an easy game because they have started well and they are a good team."
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The full article contains 558 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.