Well lads and lasses, it looks like Fuzzy has departed the site, sorry to see him go, but here goes.
Following last Saturday's heaviest home defeat to Coventry City, we tomorrow play host to MK Dons, who are one place and one point behind fourth placed Rovers, kick off 3 pm.
News from the Keepmoat is that the Board ( owners) met a couple of days ago and Steve Uttley confirmed the following.
1) James Coppinger WILL return from his loan spell at Forest and will play a part in the rest of the season. He should be availabale for the Sheff Utd game.
2) The Board is making funds available to Dean to finance this and for various signings, both existing and new, to make a concerted effort towards promotion.
3) Sheffield Utd have sold out their allocation for the North stand and will be allocated some for the East stand.
4) Rovers have done a sponsorship deal for the East stand to be named the Barter Card stand in future.
Captain Rob Jones and David Cotterill have both expressed disappointment at the nature of last week's 4-1 defeat by Coventry. Cotterill says he was ill on Friday and should not have played. Manager Saunders has put up his hand and said he made a mistake by asking David to start the game. Both players said that personal goals were secondary to the clubs goal of promotion at the end of the season.
Rob said that the quality of the players in the dressing room and the team spirit was second to none. "There are many players here who have been there and done that", added Jones." They all have the same aims for the club".
Dean Saunders says " I've got a group of honest players at the club, but we probably don't have the tools to chase the game". Although disappointed, he said, " there are lessons to be learned from the game, you could see our weaknesses last Saturday, but, to be fair, we have not defended like that all season".
Cotterill will definitely be available for Saturday, and Martin Woods and Dave Syers are both 50/50 for the game. If fit, Woods will probably replace Kyle Bennett in the starting line up. Bennett is struggling to regain his form after six weeks on the injured list. Jamie McCombe and Shelton Martis are both likely to start on the bench again.
Even under their old name of Wimbledon, the two sides have only met on six previous occasions, with Rovers winning three, Wimbledon ( MK Dons) two, with one draw.
MK Dons, who Rovers Chairman John Ryan has said, should give the Dons title back to AFC Wimbledon, are having a very good season, scoring lots of goals in the process and are one of the favourites to be up there at the end of the season.
They are well managed by Karl Robinson, and recently beat AFC Wimbledon in the long awaited first meeting between the two clubs in the 2nd round of the FA Cup, since the Dons moved to Milton Keynes.
Referee for the game is; David Webb ( Lancashire).
Assistant referees are Paul Cook and Ken Haycock with Wayne Grunnill as the fourth official.
Here's hoping for a win and the start of a good Christmas and New Year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all JA 606 contributors.
Doncaster Rovers v MK Dons Sat Dec 22
posted on 21/12/12
Live@ http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/176002
1 match ban enabled
posted on 21/12/12
Goodbye Fuzzy whoever you are. I think it will be a draw, we are still smarting from the away defeat to Brentford and won't want another one, while you are still sore at losing to Coventry. It has a six pointer written all over it, so it will probably end up even.
We are keeping the Dons and in all respect I suggest your chairman concentrates on his own club.
posted on 21/12/12
And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all JA 606 contributors as well.
posted on 21/12/12
i was thinking of putting donny in my accy but i think it could be a draw too risky for me
posted on 21/12/12
Sorry about this MK fans, this should be a link to our site so we can chat with each other, made a mess of that one, but if you wish to chat with us go to the Rovers site,especially tomorrow for those of you not going to the game.
posted on 21/12/12
It's on our site twice and I already have
posted on 22/12/12
Phew, I misread the first line and thought you had gone Furz, I then started looking at all the recent articles to find out why and then re-read this one and realised it was someone else.
I will still go 0-0.
posted on 22/12/12
Furzdonny, the thread is on twice as it should have been able for us to chat together, admin sorted it for me, I messed up. I put that comment about John Ryan to create a debate, as you say it has nothing to do with him, but he does have a tendacy to open mouth and insert foot.
I hope you will all get involved and we have some good banter this morning ( I am, as the name implies in the States) or afternoon as the case may be.
posted on 22/12/12
Doncaster v MK Dons in League One is OFF due to a waterlogged pitch. Details on the rest of the postponements here: http://t.co/KIayKJQn
posted on 22/12/12
SORRY everyone in MK, game called off by the ref due to waterlogged pitch. We'll do this again sometime in the New Year, have a good, happy and prosperous one.