SIMON Gillett has warned his Doncaster teammates they can expect an attacking onslaught from his old club tomorrow.
The St Mary’s academy product is set to line up against Saints for the first time in his career, as Nigel Adkins takes his league leaders to the Keepmoat Stadium.
And Gillett, 26, believes Doncaster – the Championship’s bottom side – will be in for a challenging afternoon.
“They’ll come here and have a go at us,” he said. “They do that against everyone.
“They’ve got a lot of attacking players, including Rickie Lambert.
“He’s got 14 goals and he’s a threat from set-pieces, as well as from open play.
“Lallana is key to everything they do.
“They’ve got a good attacking system and will cause us problems, but we kept a clean sheet in our last home game (a 0-0 draw against Watford) and we’ll be looking to do more of that in future home games.”
Gillett was released by Saints at the end of the 2009/10 season, and quickly snapped up on a free transfer by Doncaster, where he had earlier enjoyed a successful loan spell.
Since arriving at the Keepmoat Stadium on a permanent deal, Gillett has made 43 appearances and scored three goals.
But he is relishing this game perhaps more than any other he has played for Rovers.
“It’s a game I have been looking forward to ever since the fixtures came out in the summer,”
he said.
“They have a couple of lads that I keep in touch with – Kelvin Davis and Adam Lallana – but I know most of their squad to be honest because there haven’t been that many changes since I left.”
Saints’ exceptional form this season may have come as a shock to some observers, but not to Gillett.
“They’ve not surprised me how well they have done,” he said.
“After many years of problems behind the scenes they’ve now got a solid board and they’ve got plenty of money behind them and a big fan base and a great stadium.
“It’s a Premier division club in all but name.
“Manager Nigel Adkins is a well respected coach and he’s obviously gone down there and put his ideas across.
“I’ve spoken to several players and they enjoy him being down there and they like the way he works and Saints are reaping their rewards on the pitch.”
But Gillett insists Doncaster can cause an upset, even though the two clubs are fighting at opposite ends of the table.
“We may be struggling but we’ll be striving to try and get a win and we’ll be giving it everything,”
he said.
“The position that we are in we can’t afford to lose games.
We need to pick up points and build momentum.”
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