The most successful teams are based on partnerships and not necessarily just up front.

Nicky Forster and Glenn Murray are proving to be a prolific pair at the sharp end but Albion now have the makings of a miserly combination in the centre of defence as well.

Manager Dean Wilkins has always regarded Joel Lynch and Tommy Elphick as the future in that department.

They have, for one reason or another, rarely operated in tandem for the first team so far but that is now changing.

Lynch is back to full fitness after a campaign interrupted by injury problems. Guy Butters is, by some distance, the wrong side of 30, Adam Hinshelwood is a long-term absentee and Adam El-Abd is needed for the problematical position in the middle of midfield alongside Steven Thomson.

Lynch linked up with Elphick to great effect in the wind and rain at Walsall last week. They built on that solid display against the experienced Tommy Mooney with an even better one against an awkwardly familiar opponent.

Mark McCammon was back at Withdean for the first time since his departure from Albion two years ago. He scored the only goal against the Seagulls up in Yorkshire last season but there was never any danger of him staging a repeat.

The bustling McCammon was such a peripheral figure that he was one of the victims of a triple substitution by Doncaster boss Sean O'Driscoll with 15 minutes left.

So too was fellow front man Paul Heffernan, who scored when Elphick made his full debut in a 2-0 defeat in the corresponding fixture a year ago.

He should have scored again when he missed the target with a free header in the first half and Michel Kuipers did well to keep out his shot early in the second half but the removal of both strikers by O'Driscoll was testimony to how well Lynch and Elphick performed.

They know each other inside out after graduating through the youth and reserve teams and spending time on loan together at Bognor.

Lynch, more talented but less consistent, made it into the first team sooner. Elphick, an old-fashioned centre-half in the same mould as his father Gary, has established himself this season.

Forster, although a supremely fit 34, is in the twilight of his career but, if one or both are not prised away, then Lynch and Elphick could be dovetailing in the Albion defence for years to come.

Forster, the controversial match-winner against next-to-top Rovers, knew who deserved most credit for a victory which has given the quest for a play-off place real momentum.

"I've got to give special mention to the back five and especially the central two," said the skipper. "I thought they were phenomenal, awesome.

"They won every header that came their way. McCammon might not be the most gifted of players but he is a real handful. They dealt with that well."

Forster inflicted only Doncaster's second defeat in 15 matches away from home in controversial fashion. It looked from the press box like a clear case of a penalty when Brian Stock just caught him from behind to halt his run into the box following good approach work by Kerry Mayo.

Rovers' complaints seemed, at the time, unwarranted and their sense of injustice was merely exacerbated by what happened next.

Neil Sullivan guessed right to deny Forster his third spot-kick in as many home matches but he converted the rebound for his 16th goal of the season.

Forster was honest enough to admit: "It's a shame that a controversial incident like that had to decide the game. I certainly don't like to think of myself as a cheat but it possibly was a soft penalty.

"Strikers run at defenders at pace and they sometimes go over. I didn't dive and I didn't appeal. There wasn't much contact.

"I was slightly fortunate that it bounced back out to me but someone was quoted the other day as saying the players that never miss penalties are the ones that don't step up to take them in the first place.

"The best players in the world have missed some. I'm no different, although I'm not one of them!

"It was a big win in a good old-fashioned game, played at a high tempo with a lot of tackles flying in and two committed teams. I thought our workrate at times just to stop them playing was phenomenal."

The manner of Doncaster's demise may have been a touch cruel but Albion deserved to win narrowly on the strength of their second-half performance.

The Yorkshiremen started with customary fluency and the influential Stock struck the bar from long range but, once Wilkins changed the system "when they were passing us to death", his side moved into the ascendancy.

With the inventive Dean Cox operating at the advanced point of the midfield diamond, Sullivan was much the busier of the two goalkeepers.

Most of his saves were routine but his handling in greasy conditions was impeccable and he kept Doncaster's hopes of a point alive with a smart double stop which foiled first the impressive Ian Westlake and then Murray.

A nervy finish should not have been necessary after Forster left to a standing ovation. His replacement, Gary Hart, shot tamely at Sullivan after Cox put him clean through.

Albion, having disposed of Walsall and Doncaster in the space of four days, can now forget about their previous failures to beat the League One elite.

Withdean, just like the old days, is also becoming a fortress once more, with six wins and three draws now from the last nine home games.

More of the same from Lynch and Elphick at Huddersfield tomorrow night will ensure that the Seagulls are, at the very least, deprived of a play-off position only by goal difference.

ALBION (4-4-2): Michel Kuipers (GK), Andrew Whing (RB), Tommy Elphick (CB), Joel Lynch (CB), Matt Richards (LB), Dean Cox (RM), Adam El-Abd (CM), Steven Thomson (CM), Ian Westlake (LM), Glenn Murray (CF), Nicky Forster (CF). Subs: Kerry Mayo (for Richards 25), Gary Hart (for Forster 86), Jake Robinson, Tommy Fraser, Jonny Dixon.

YELLOW CARDS: Westlake (foul) 65, Thomson (ungentlemanly conduct) 68, Whing (foul) 90.

GOAL: Forster 57.

DONCASTER (4-3-3): Neil Sullivan (GK), Paul Green (RB), Matthew Mills (CB), Adam Lockwood (LB), Gareth Roberts (LB), Ritchie Wellens (RM), Sean McDaid (M), Brian Stock (LM), James Coppinger (CF), Paul Heffernan (CF), Mark McCammon (CF).

Subs: Gareth Taylor (for McDaid 75), James Hayter (for McCammon 75), Stuart Elliott (for Heffernan 75), Stephen Roberts, Sam Hird.

YELLOW CARDS: Stock (foul) 56, Mills (dissent) 57, Lockwood (foul) 74, Wellens (foul) 82.

How you rate the Tommy Elphick and Joel Lynch pairing?