Team news

Diouf blow for Rovers Doncaster forward El-Hadji Diouf will miss the visit of npower Championship leaders Southampton after a hamstring injury ruled him out for a month.

The problem meant Diouf was absent when Rovers went down 3-2 at Millwall on Tuesday night and scans confirmed the 30-year-old former Liverpool and Bolton star is around four weeks away from a return to action.

Defensive duo Pascal Chimbonda (hip) and Shelton Martis (groin) will be keeping Diouf company on the sidelines for a similar length of time.

Rovers skipper George Friend and James Coppinger are set to give boss Dean Saunders respective options in defence and attack after stepping up their involvement in training following foot injuries.

Adam Lockwood serves the final game of a three-match ban for the bottom versus top clash, while Richard Naylor is expected to miss out once more with a broken finger.

Martin Woods (groin), Chris Brown and James Chambers (both knee) remain long-term absentees.

Richard Chaplow will be missing for Saints.

Midfielder Chaplow has not recovered from the knee injury which forced him to miss Tuesday night's 2-1 win over Hull, so Morgan Schneiderlin looks set to keep his place.

David Connolly is expected to miss out again with a groin problem but fellow striker Lee Barnard is pushing for his first start of the season, having made four substitute appearances since recovering from an ankle injury.

Danny Fox was rested in midweek and could come back in for Dan Harding at left-back while winger Steve de Ridder may have earned a start after coming on at half-time against Hull with Saints 1-0 down.

Doncaster vs Southampton

Last modified 17:17 03/12/11

Saints suffer Sharp end at Doncaster Billy Sharp scored the only goal of the game as Doncaster moved off the bottom of the npower Championship with a shock 1-0 victory over leaders Southampton.

Rickie Lambert was absent for Nigel Adkins' side with a hip injury and the Saints badly missed the 14-goal striker's cutting edge as they failed to consistently test Rovers goalkeeper Carl Ikeme.

Southampton's best chance fell to Morgan Schneiderlin, who was thwarted by on-loan Wolves man Ikeme when through on goal in the first half.

An end-to-end opening period gave way to a cagey second 45 minutes, but Sharp was on hand to provide the decisive moment from Marc-Antoine Fortune's 60th-minute cross.

West Ham's defeat to Burnley means Southampton's two-point advantage at the summit remains intact after 20 games.

James Coppinger replaced Giles Barnes in the only change to the Doncaster side that lost 3-2 at Millwall on Tuesday night, while Adkins handed recalls to Danny Fox and Steve de Ridder.

Rovers might have taken a second-minute lead when Herita Ilunga headed wide after the Saints defence gifted the on-loan West Ham defender a free header from Brian Stock's corner.

Former St Mary's midfielder Simon Gillett then drew an impressive save from Kelvin Davis with a stinging 20-yard drive as Doncaster made an enterprising start.

Sharp dragged wide from a Gillett cross in the 24th minute before Stock fired narrowly past the post from the edge of the area after full-back James O'Connor instigated a swift Rovers counter-attack.

Southampton should have been in front shortly after the half-hour. Schneiderlin sprung the Doncaster offside trap to collect Guly Do Prado's through-ball, but Ikeme was quickly off his line and diverted the ball behind.

From the resulting corner, one of eight won by Saints in the opening period, the hosts sprung up the other end on the counter-attack to win one of their own, and Ilunga saw his header from Stock's delivery cleared off the line by Jose Fonte.

Do Prado, who scored his eighth goal of the season in Southampton's midweek victory over Hull, hit a speculative lob in the 39th minute, forcing a scrambling Ikeme to tip over the bar.

That save preserved the deadlock at the interval and the high-octane nature of the first half was not replicated when the action resumed.

But the Keepmoat Stadium was sent into raptures with an hour gone when Fortune hared towards the right byline and cut back for Sharp to register his seventh goal of the season in clinical fashion.

Sharp netted from the penalty spot in midweek and after 74 minutes it looked as if he might get the chance to double his side's advantage when Coppinger went down under a heavy challenge from Fox in the area. However, the linesman's flag was already raised for offside.