DPL v Crawley T

An internal appointment was never a good idea. Nothings changed including injury and fitness management. I sense a bit of disquiet amongst the squad. Never a good thing. Interesting to see how well Wellens is doing. It's a funny old game. Hope I'm wrong.

Well, my preferred front line cannot happen because of Taylor's yet another injury. OK, put Molyneaux on the right and Hurst on the left. I think two strikers will help Miller, but is Agard the one? If he starts, where is Tomlin, as I expect Clayton and Close to start in mid-field? Maybe we will go to aback three so Tomlin can play infront of Close and Clayton. However our defence with a back four has not been good, so will three be better or worse?
Rovers have to win, so I'll say 3-1 to the good guys with Molyneaux to score the first, or Miller if he does not start.

Nookie, I'm not so against internal appointments as you are, but agree they rarely become great. I'd admit McS seems to give more faith in the lads he knew at the U-18 level.
The amazing thing is the success Wellens is having - does that indicate that there is a real structural problem in the upper management/board of Doncaster Rovers?

The upper management at DRFC beyond Copps level is (de facto) the Chairman as we are told that the CEO has no involvement with the football side.

Can one man who has no known experience of football or the kind of sporting enterprise that is a football club be the effective CEO?

The other question is how can someone whose job title of CEO of “Club Doncaster” completely opt out of responsibility for DRFC, its main business?

Baldwin made a very ambitious statement of business objectives when Wellens was appointed yet seemingly takes no responsibility for ensuring that they are acheived.

Some might say that Senior Management is structurally unsound. We have just two people at the level of taking a strategic view of the Club Doncaster business who do not seem to have the wisdom even to share that responsibility.

I'm going to be recklessly optimistic and say 2-1 to Rovers. Miller with the first.

1-0 to the rovers with molyneux with the goal

Rovers 1-1 Crawley
Miller to score ⚽

From the commentary it seemed that Rovers were making fairly heavy weather of it - even after the first goal. Crawley’s almost-instant reply did not seem to really surprise the commentators. Mitchell seems to save so many shots that (like this one) really ought not to get through the defence. Crawley, who cannot be “a good side” as I think Peter Catt called them at this stage because the reality is that they are just a side who put up a reasonable performance against Rovers today, but whose overall record makes them vulnerable to relegation. In my view, from a DRFC viewpoint, the win does not provide evidence of much beyond our survival at this level.

We owe a lot to the dubious penalty award (from a ref whose appointment was most unwelcome to a lot of fans) which just about fired the team into winning mode. By the end, everyone seemed joyous at the win with the earlier mediocrity forgotten.

I am not convinced that this is the start of a surge to the top, more of us finding our depth fairly near the shallow end of the swimming pool.

I think we need to do more than beat Crawley 4-1 to prove we can climb back to the relative respectability of League 1.

As usual, a very slow start with the opposition seeming to be quicker in everything, especially out-pacing our defenders. We then got some control and started creating chances, and deservedly went ahead. It is worrying how Crawley cut through our defence, especially for their equalizer which was their first shot on target, and Mitchell could have done better. At times it seemed if Crawley could finish better, they would have stayed in the game. However the stats say they had 9 shots whereas the Rovers had 17, so really the Rovers could have scored several more.
At the time, I did not see the handball, but the ref did not hesitate in awarding a penalty. Perhaps there also was a little luck with the third in how the ball dropped for Miller after had got in the way of an Agard shot, but he gave their GK no chance as he riffled home. Hurst's goal deserved to be on the winning side!
Even if we win the next two games, the real test will come against Wellens' "Wonders" who have only conceded four league goals so far this season.

I know an Orient season-ticket holder and will ensure that I play a round of golf with him soon and find out what he thinks. Previous fairly brief conversations have found him full of wonderment, particularly Wellens’ part in it all.