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RODGERS REVEALS BEST WISHES FROM BLUES
Watford manager Brendan Rodgers revealed he had received a number of good luck messages from former Chelsea colleagues after kicking off his Hornets reign with a 1-1 draw at home to Doncaster.
Striker Steve Brooker came off the bench to score with his first touch in a Doncaster shirt to claim a point for the visitors.
Brooker arrived on loan at the Keepmoat Stadium from Bristol City on Thursday and took just six minutes of his debut to cancel out Tommy Smith's opener for the Hornets.
Smith capped an incisive passing move in the 31st minute when he slotted home Tamas Priskin's cross to score for the fourth successive game but Brooker converted a close-range volley to earn Rovers a much-needed point.
Rodgers left his post as Chelsea's reserve team manager on Monday to succeed Adrian Boothroyd at the Hertfordshire club and said after the game: "I had a phone call this morning from a lot of the Chelsea guys - John Terry and Wayne Bridge and Steve Sidwell from Aston Villa."
"I'm pleased that we didn't lose. In the first couple of days the players have been fantastic in terms of their attitude and some of the qualities they have shown and you go into the game today and obviously you're hoping for a positive result.
"In the first half we showed some very, very good moments and it led to the goal which was a very, very good goal. At half-time I'm thinking there's a game that we can go on and do well and do better in the second half, but sometimes it happens naturally and you get caught deep and it's very, very difficult to get out.
"I thought in the second half it was very difficult for us and so overall at 1-1 I was pleased."
Doncaster manager Sean O'Driscoll said: "I thought we created enough chances to win the game. The longer the game went on the stronger we got, but it was a sloppy goal we gave away from our throw-in and it should have been cleared.
"Brendan made changes and we were wondering how they would play. In the first 20 minutes both sides were sort of looking at each other, seeing what they could do, they got the goal and we had to respond in the second half which I thought we did."
