A BRAVE new world? Hardly. Manager Brendan Rodgers began his tenure as Watford helmsman by taking a fortuitous point from struggling Doncaster Rovers and, as if to remind him of the task that lies ahead, his new charges were jeered off.

Still, for Rodgers it is the earliest of days. When Watford appointed Adrian Boothroyd in 2005, they plucked an untried managerial quantity from Leeds United’s coaching staff and gave him carte blanche. A year later, the Championship relegation favourites were in the Premier League.

Boothroyd’s hit ’n’ hope regime stagnated, but by plucking Rodgers from Chelsea’s backroom, Watford hope to induce lightning to strike twice. In his programme notes, Rodgers promised to give “my all, my life” to the club, but on yesterday’s evidence, he will need all that Stakhanovite zeal, and highfalutin’ long-term goals might have to be sacrificed for short-term expediency if Watford are to avoid demotion.

“We had some very good moments,” Rodgers argued. “And the players have big hearts and want to improve, but there are some structural things we need to look at.”

Crisp of passing, fluid of movement, Doncaster have failed to score more than once in a Championship match this season, but they swept into their petrified hosts and Richie Wellens’s seventh-minute shot took a wicked deflection before Scott Loach tipped it on to the inside of the post. Typically, Doncaster failed to make their possession count and after 31 minutes Watford scored with their first attack.

Former Hornet James Chambers hesitated, Jobi McAnuff pounced and fed the hungry Hungarian Tamas Priskin, who shot across goal. The unmarked Tommy Smith slid in to score at the back post.

Prompted by Wellens and Brian Stock, Doncaster were a delight to watch, but unwilling or unable to rough it, they lacked anything resembling a cutting edge.

Watford’s luck did not hold. Steve Brooker’s Premier League career totalled just five minutes when he appeared as a substitute for Watford in 1999. Yesterday, on his first return to Vicarage Road, just five minutes into his loan from Bristol City, he poked home Doncaster’s equaliser, a facsimile of Watford’s goal after John Spicer burst into the penalty area and crossed low.

Doncaster could have secured all three points late on, but Loach did well to paw aside James Coppinger’s piledriver. The shared spoils ultimately pleased nobody, but Doncaster need only a striker as lambent as their midfield. “If anyone wants us to hoof it they’re going to have to look for someone else to mange them,” mused downbeat Rovers manager Sean O’Driscoll.

Star man: Richie Wellens

WATFORD:Loach 7, Jenkins 6, Harley 6, Mariappa 6, DeMerit 6, Smith 6, McAnuff 6, Bridcutt 6 (Doyley 69min), Williamson 6, Priskin 5, Hoskins 5 (O’Toole 58min)

DONCASTER:Sullivan 6, O’Connor 6 Mills 6, Chambers 6, Martis 6 (Hird, 41min), Stock 7, Woods 6 (Guy, 64min), Spicer 7, Wellens 7, Taylor 5 (Brooker, 64min), Coppinger 7

Yellow cards: Watford: Harley, Bridcutt, Priskin, OToole, Williamson Doncaster: Chambers, Martis, Woods.

Referee:I Williamson

Attendance:14,008