James Coppinger returned to action for Rovers in the draw with Sheffield United and was overwhelmed by the reception he received from the fans.
The Midfielder, who had his loan spell at Nottingham Forest end last week, explained how he felt about the support he received: “It’s overwhelming to be honest; it’s one of the highlights of my career I’d say.
“It was unbelievable to get that sort of reaction, I appreciate that from the fans and hopefully I can come back and help them on their promotion push.”
After the reaction to his entrance on Tuesday, Coppinger said he was glad to be back at the club.
“It’s good to be back, I’ve had a few training sessions under my belt and obviously I was involved in the last game. It was good to get a run out and hopefully there’s more to come.”
Despite him coming back into a squad that’s flying in the league, he doesn’t believe he has a point to prove at the club, just to help push the team forward.
“The lads have done so well, put themselves in a great position and I’ve come back to hopefully help with that.”
James left the club in August to join up with former Rovers manager Sean O’Driscoll at Nottingham Forest and he explains that despite not getting much time on the pitch, he enjoyed the change of scenery.
“I enjoyed it. I’ve been at the club for eight years, to go somewhere else and see new faces, it was a great experience. It’s good to be back and hopefully I can start playing some football.”
The 31 year old drops down a division after his loan spell and admits he’s not seen as much of League One as he’d like.
“I’ve not seen much but there’s a few teams fighting for promotion spots and hopefully we’ll be one of them.”
Coppinger returns to Doncaster with both David Cotterill, the club’s top scorer, and Kyle Bennett in good form and knows it’s going to be tough to break into Dean Saunders’ starting 11.
“It is a challenge; they’ve been doing really well, both of them. Cotts is playing a vital role out on the right and his set pieces and goals have helped the team to where they are.
I’m under no illusions that I’m going to come in and get straight into the team. I’m going to train as hard as I can on the training pitch and show the manager what I’m all about and hopefully that will get me a starting place.”
Finally, the winger explained that promotion is the word on everyone’s lips and everything is in place to push towards that goal to the end of the season.
“I think you’ve got to. The position they’ve put themselves in is fantastic and the quality that they’ve got at the club, the players that they’ve got on the bench, the players that are playing, they can all sort of affect each other and will each other to win and it’s all good.”