A Liam Noble goal 16 minutes from time has earned Notts County a 1-0 victory over Doncaster Rovers in the Northern Area quarter-finals of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

Conditions were far from ideal at the Keepmoat Stadium and that contributed to an uneventful start for both sides before Doncaster's Harry Forrester was comfortably denied by Roy Carroll.

The visitors responded through Jake Cassidy, who picked up a cross from Mustapha Dumbuya before volleying well wide of the target.

Chances were still a rare occurrence in Yorkshire as the game reached the half-hour mark with only efforts from Kyle Bennett and Curtis Main coming close to breaking the deadlock.

Bennett was impressing for Rovers and just before the half-time whistle, he came inches away from putting Doncaster into the lead when he curled a free kick inches wide of the post with Carroll beaten.

The start of the second half proved to be as quiet as the first, but Doncaster thought that they had taken the lead on 68 minutes after Bennett's shot found the back of the net.

However, after consulting with his assistant, the referee disallowed the strike when it was deemed that Bennett's shot had deflected off Main, who was standing in an offside position.

Six minutes later, Notts County capitalised on that decision by taking the lead through Noble, who drove the ball into the bottom corner from 20 yards.

Moments after entering the action as a substitute, Garry Thompson nearly netted a second for County but saw Sam Johnstone save well to keep his side in contention with 10 minutes left.

Bennett had a late effort kept out by Carroll but that was as good as it got for Doncaster as Notts County held on to book their place in the Northern Area semi-finals.