It has been 50 years since Doncaster Rovers played in English football’s second tier, but Sean O’Driscoll, their manager, is confident that they can now make a return. The visiting team missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of the Coca-Cola League One campaign, yet showed no signs of feeling sorry for themselves on this visit to Essex in the first leg of the play-offs semi-final.

Even a red card to Paul Heffernan, the Doncaster forward, could not dampen O’Driscoll’s hopes. “I don’t think you can ever blame hangovers in football,” he said. “We deal with disappointments more than with success. All season we have kept our feet on the ground when under pressure to be successful. We try to do it the right way and we showed that here.”

These sides will meet again next Friday to decide who will play at Wembley for the chance to compete in the Championship next season.

The sour moment of the night for Doncaster came with four minutes left when Heffernan’s season came to an abrupt end after he butted Charlie Mulgrew, the Southend United defender. “We’ll have to take it on the chin,” O’Driscoll said.

Doncaster had the better opportunities, most falling to Jason Price, the forward. His best chance came in the second period, when Darryl Flahavan, the Southend goalkeeper, made a block with his feet. The home side’s best moment came in the first half. Simon Francis, the defender, had a shot tipped wide by Neil Sullivan.

Southend have lost only one of their past eight away matches and Steve Tilson, the manager, is confident of reaching to the final. “People may think Doncaster have won this,” he said, “but we have a good away record and we will go up there with confidence that we can get a result.”

Southend United (4-4-2): D Flahavan — S Francis, P Clarke, A Barrett, C Mulgrew — M Gower, N Bailey, A McCormack, T Black (sub: A Revell, 62min) — L Barnard, J Walker. Substitutes not used: S Collis, C MacDonald, H Robson-Kanu, F Moussa.

Doncaster Rovers (4-4-2): N Sullivan — M Mills, S Hird, J O’Connor, G Roberts — P Green, B Stock, J Coppinger (sub: G Taylor, 90), J Price (sub: M McCammon, 88) — L Guy (sub: J Hayter, 80), P Heffernan. Substitutes not used: G Lee, M Woods. Sent off: Heffernan.

Referee: P Taylor.