Donny destroy Villa

	Thornton’s shown some excellent form of late, and that form was capped off with a stunning strike on Tuesday night

We picked out Doncaster’s Sean Thornton, Paul Heffernan and Leo Fortune-West, and Aston Villa’s Juan Pablo Angel, Gareth Barry and James Milner as our players to watch for Tuesday night’s live Carling Cup game. Thornton and Heffernan starred in a comprehensive 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Tuesday night.

Heffernan was a thorn in the side of the Villa defence all night, and put the game beyond Villa with a smart finish for 2-0 after a cracking touch by striker partner Lewis Guy.

Thornton was arguably the man of the match, pulling the strings in midfield and showing the range of passing that saw him make the grade in the Premiership with Sunderland. His deflected strike from long range made the game safe at 3-0 and sent Belle Vue into raptures. It was Thornton’s first goal for Rovers after enduring a series of niggling injuries since his arrival at Belle Vue, but he’s shown some excellent form of late, and that form was capped off with a stunning strike on Tuesday night.

Our Villa men to watch were also interesting cases. We questioned how effective Juan Pablo Angel might be on a cold Tuesday night in Doncaster, and so it proved, as the £9m man was anonymous throughout.

James Milner was one of the few Villa players to emerge from the game with any credit. The young wide-man showed plenty of effort, but sadly his teammates didn’t display the same drive, and his efforts went to waste.

Finally Gareth Barry had a hot and cold afternoon. So often the driving force behind Aston Villa’s successes, he was a bit=part player last night, but surely would have been called upon to take a penatly had the officials spotted the clear foul on Milan Baros in the area, deep into the second half. Had the ref pointed to the spot, we could have had three scorers from our six men to watch.

Even so, picking out two of the night’s three goalscorers isn’t a bad start, and hopefully we’ll have similar luck when we pick out our next ones to watch.