Brendan Rodgers handed full debuts to newly-signed trio Shaun Cummings, Brian Howard and Darren O'Dea in our 0-0 home draw with Doncaster, and the boss declared himself pleased with how they performed.

Howard and O'Dea both came close to debut goals, hitting the bar and seeing a header well saved respectively, while Cummings showed good defensive ability and a willingness to get forward down the right.

Brendan said, "The international break gave them more time to bed in and I thought they were excellent, I was pleased with their contribution.

"Darren is a solid boy who is strong, aggressive and controlled the game from behind quite well. He's a natural communicator, a good talker.

"Shaun as you could see is athletic, likes to get forward and is hard to beat defensively.

"With Brian you could see his wee bits of quality that is going to make the difference for us. I thought they all did very well, to be honest.

"The togetherness was there with them all, that pleased me, seeing that straight away. We were threatening that goal, but that will come."

Matthew Mills missed out against his former side, moving to the bench, and Brendan said, "The easy thing is maybe to play Matty and drop others. He's been fine, he's just not quite there in terms of fitness.

"We've got a good squad, just look at the bench today; Marek, Kalifa, Grzegorz Rasiak all on there for us. It's a long season. we've 40 games to go and the squad will be important. The players know I will pick the team for the right reason, I will be open and honest."

In addition, Brendan confirmed Shane Long was injured but may return for the Cardiff game.

Lastly, there is no truth in the speculation linking the Royals with a loan move for Bryan Hughes of Hull.