NEILL COLLINS knew it was his lucky day minutes before kick-off - and cashed in big-time to send Championship leaders Wolves seven points clear of secondplaced Reading.
The 25-year-old central defender was initially named as sub on the team sheet, but ended up starting and then scoring the winner.
His first break came when Chelsea's onloan England Under-21 centre-back Michael Mancienne suffered a migraine during the warm-up and had to cry off.
Collins stepped manfully into the breach, survived a strong red-card appeal and hit Doncaster with his late winner.
That was his second goal of the season - a thumping header from a Michael Kightly free-kick on the left. Goalkeeper Neil Sullivan might wish he'd stayed on his line for the delivery.
And it was so tough on battling bottom club Donny as they went down 1-0 for the third game running. They just can't put away their chances and Wolverhamptonborn boss Sean O'Driscoll admitted: "I'm beyond frustrated. We have played as well as anybody in this division, but nobody's going to give us anything."
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy felt for his counterpart and added: "It was a fantastic result and could go down as one of the results of the season. Collins got his reward for taking it with good grace when he was left out despite training hard."
Rovers were dominant for much of the game, although the highlight of the opening half was an amazing assault by McCarthy's men.
It came in the 39th minute when Kightly won a corner from the left, which resulted in three Wolves players holding their heads in disbelief.
Andy Keogh's two efforts came back off the bar and a post, Richard Stearman's shot through a crowd was superbly turned away by the keeper, and Stephen Ward had a piledriver blocked as more heroics followed from Rovers defender Sam Hird.
Apart from an early warning from Collins, when he had a header blocked, that was as good as it got for the Molineux marauders.
So much so that McCarthy tried to up the tempo after the break by bringing on leading scorer Chris Iwelumo, winger Matt Jarvis and finally young striker Sam Vokes.
Wolves certainly had not sparkled, while plucky Donny rattled the woodwork when playmaker Richie Wellens sent Paul Heffernan away down the right-hand channel. He looked to have outpaced Stearman, whose last-ditch challenge came just in time to turn Heffernan's shot against a post.
Wellens powered in two good efforts before half-time and then came up with his best, which looked to be turned for a corner. But ref Kevin Wright said it had gone wide before the keeper got to it.
The official then incensed the Keepmoat crowd who, along with chairman John Ryan, believe they are getting a raw deal because of the small-club syndrome.
First he refused a penalty as Wayne Hennessey appeared to slightly push Lewis Guy to get to a loose, bouncing ball.
And then it was only a yellow for Collins as he charged in to stop Guy going clear - although his boot only took the ball to make both decisions reasonable.