Doncaster v Yeovil

A great result but my heart is not in it today. Thoughts n prayers to Yankee and his family.

Thinking of you NY.
Thanks for Reports lads.
So sad for NY and family.Stay strong.
ROVERS FOR EVER NY

Terrible news about NY, but thanks for the update Mickyb.

Will miss NYs threads.
God bless you.

I come to this site with sadness now for Newyankee and I never thought I could feel so much for one I had never met or even seen, such is the power of words and a shared love for a football team.

But my love for DRFC is by no means unconditional. A theme this season has been that the team is still far from fully effective and although the result provided good feelings amongst the faithful, the first half performance could have seen us 2 or even more goals in arrears against a better side. The evidence of the Channel 5 highlights show that the football in this League can be impressive and just as good in flashes at any rate as in the League above; there are quite a lot of skilful players which fortunately we were not having to cope with on Saturday.

In the warm-up the defensive players under Strachan’s supervision, were practising close control, passing the ball in a circle, 4 against 3 and some of it brought back memories of the O’Kelly warm-ups with a good level of skill on show. However, when real play began only Copps made any attempt to hold the ball and pass it accurately. Others would get the ball and immediately knock it back and the full back, usually Lund on the right, would boot it speculatively up the wing in the hope that someone would run on to it. Williams who put in 100% throughout and Marquis were chasing these balls in competition with defenders with at best a 50:50 chance of being able to get to them first and find a measure of controlled possession from which to create attacks, usually with no one except each other to combine with. Evina seemed to be a bit more adventurous actually venturing up the left side, but there was a tendency for the majority to sit in defensive positions and watch. There was good work in the centre at the back, but the midfield apart from Copps did not really exert itself and some defenders hardly made it past the half way line. And that was the first half.

So most of them could not possibly be following management instructions up to that point.

On the subject of the ref, he was clearly inexperienced and seemed to try to let the game flow, but in doing so was letting increasingly robust tackling go by. He toughened up in the second half, but was inconsistent. Curiously when Williams was battling with their centre half he almost always gave the foul AGAINST the player who finished up on the floor as though he judged that he was “making a back” when it really did seem that Mugabi for the most part was the aggressor. He got his first card for reacting to Copps’ rather stupid undangerous sliding tackle which got Copps booked too and I must say that he then seemed rather unfortunate to get another when he hardly touched Williams as he broke in front of him, but it was poetic justice I suppose.

Rowe was fortunate not to get a card for a rather obvious and unnecessary dive in the box.

I haven't posted on here in a long, long time, but thought I'd pay my regards to NY- very sad news- and also say what a game that was. The reports don't due it justice. I took a friend who had never seen a Rovers match and she loved it- we have another fan now. Well done lads, and thoughts with Yankee's family

Perhaps my comments do look rather pessimistic which was not my intention. I had intended to add at the end that others had covered the good stuff and there was a good deal to be happy about.

Don, I can't agree that Yeovil could have been two or three goals ahead at half time.
Ok, I agree that after the first ten minutes we were not very good but in truth neither were the opposition.
It was a very scrappy first half by both teams and the game hindered by the very poor ref.
Marosi had very little to do.

Hound: What I meant was that the way we played could have seen us 2 or more goals behind at half time and that Yeovil were not good enough to take advantage even though their passing was better than ours.

I suppose I am trying to keep what we are doing in perspective. It's good to be winning again, but I still think we've got a good way to go before we can be truly confident that we have promotion-winning side.

I get your drift don and I am still not totally confident that DF will stick with the 4-1-3-2 when players such as Alcock and Baudry return to the team.
In all honesty, of the games I have seen it has taken us until the second half to begin to command proceedings but with the added bonus of looking better defensively and as a unit.
We do have players in our team who look a class above the opposition and that will carry us a long way.