DONCASTER ROVERS
- V -
CRAWLEY TOWN
Crawley Town today become Doncaster Rovers' 116th opponents in league football. We have also never met in the Conference so this match is a rather rare occasion for Donny these days. Crawley probably get a lot of this being relatively new to the league, but its unusual for Donny, especially as we have done some time in non-league and are familiar with some off-road places in English football.
So Crawley - Donny, Donny - Crawley. That's the introductions over, now lets have a good game of football!
DONCASTER ROVERS
If Kyle gets 20 goals, I think two things are likely to happen - he’ll be worth about £2m to £3m in the transfer market and we’re more than likely to be in the Championship, which is worth about £5m to £6m - John Ryan
Everything on the pitch is on course for Donny at the moment. They looked imperious against Walsall last weekend, but were made to work a little harder by a resilient Bury side, who to be fair, took me a little by surprise.
When I write these blogs in early season, there's more reading about players' achievements to be done and less looking at videos. For my money, in defence, Adam Lockwood was likely to be partnered by Andrai Jones. I felt the pair was in for a tough evening at the hands of Billy Paynter and Chris Brown. Bury fan forums were concerned about Kyle Bennett exposing their full-backs and at the other end of the field, I saw no threat at all in the Bury forward line. It looked an easy win. Looking back now, well we got the win but probably needed Bury being reduced to 10-men to achieve it.
First of all, after just 4 minutes the twin-towers, Rob Jones and Jamie McCoombe, came crashing to earth when Bury took the lead from a corner. Adam Lockwood got in front of Jones and his header was helped in at the near post by Joe Skarz. Rovers, were losing, and the goal came from a set-piece. Memories of last-season flashed back briefly.
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| Bentley in the Bag for Bennett? |
Parity was restored with a great move around the Bury area being ended by Kyle Bennett smashing through the middle of the Bury defence to get on the end of Tommy Spurr's return pass. Rovers deserved that but had been made to work as Bury had had a couple of chances to extend their lead.
Eye-brows are quite rightly being raised about Bennet's abilities, not least from John Ryan. The Doncaster Chairman has apparently offered Bennett his Bentley should Ryan net 20 goals this season. With the attention he's already receiving, I would think if he hits this total, the move he could get would enable him to buy his own!
The battle continued in the second half, but with Rovers gradually getting the better of things. Bury were still holding out though but when Steven Schumacher saw red for a 2nd bookable offence, Rovers simply held too many good cards not to win the game. Chris Brown ended up with time and space in the Bury area and with 12 minutes remaining, picked his spot perfectly. A win, but hard work for the Rovers.
Other gossip around the club - James Coppinger, will he stay or will he go. Well he rejected a loan deal with Barnsley out of hand. Quite right too. As Dean Saunders told us when reacting to Copps' decision, just 2 months loan with no guarantees as to what would happen afterwards. Not a deal to take with the transfer-window still open.
I think its clear though that Dean would like somebody to leave the club to enable him to increase the size of the squad. I also think that Coppinger is his preferred choice, probably because he is the most likely to command a fee and because he is confident in the abilities of Kyle Bennett and David Cotterill. Its sad for Copps though. The longest-serving and most gifted player Rovers have being reduced to barely a supporting role for the greater good of the club. I hope something good eventually comes of this for him.
CRAWLEY TOWN
So who are Crawley Town, this team we've never met before? Crawley's rise has some parallels with Doncaster's. They had an ex-chairman jailed, so did we; they achieved double-promotion from Conference to League 1, so did we. But Crawley's rise has been quicker and somewhat perversely, less smooth.
Crawley made it to a national league for the first time in 2004 and their first season went well. 12th place made them the highest ranked part-time team in the country, but then things started to go wrong.
After being bought out, the club's new owner turned the team into a full-time outfit. It didn't go well. They dropped to 3rd from bottom of the Conference and went out of the FA Cup in the qualifying round. The downturn was accompanied by fans staying away and lack of funds required the wage-bill to be halved, Now doesn't that sound familiar! A good run to the end of the season, preserved their conference status for the season, but Crawley were forced into administration.
A rescue package was made with the club within an hour of folding. In the next season, 2006/07 the ship was steadied and Crawley, with their 10-point penalty just avoided relegation on the last day. 2007/08 saw Victor Marley take the position of Chairman at the club. Marley has found significant investors in the form of Prospect Estate Holdings Ltd. and the financial worries were over.
Well not quite. Another winding up order was served by HMRC in 2010 due to an allegedly unpaid tax bill. There had been issues over taxes. One of them resulting in the imprisonment of former chairman, Azwar Majeed for fraud.
But this action proved to be an embarrassment for HMRC as the case was dismissed due to Crawley proving the bill had been paid and co-owner, Susan Carter, stating that the club's efforts to be honest and up front about their finances were not being helped by the Inland Revenue's inability to get their admin right.
Since then, double promotion from the conference to league 1 and we meet today!
So far this season, its a very symmetrical record for the red devils. A 3:0 win against Scunthorpe on opening day, followed by being on the wrong end of the same scoreline on Tuesday.
The goals against Scunthorpe came from a set-piece free-kick, with Hope Akpan nodding down for Gary Alexander to tap in. The second was Alexander again, this time from the spot after he was hauled down in the box and Jonathan Forte finished things off, latching onto a long ball and rounding the keeper.
Against Swindon, the goals in the opposite direction were firstly a piece of luck when a cross from Matt Ritchie somehow looped over Paul Jones straight into the net. The second was poor from a Crawley point of view. After allowing Rafaelle De Vita to get the first header in the box, the ball should have been cleared. It went instead to Tommy Miller to drive in. The third goal again started with a bit of poor defending. Ball-watching allowed Swindon to continue to press and after some patient build-up work, in came the cross. Craig McFadzean got a head to the cross but only enough to help it on to De Vita who had an easy finish.
All in all, I though Crawley mainly rely on getting high balls into the box to score their goals, a tactic that would suit the Rovers, so today, I would think they will be trying play Jonathan Forte in behind the twin-towers. Height and strength should not concern the Rovers defence at the moment, but pace could be terrifying for them.
At the back, I think Craig McFadzean and Gary Alexander will provide the hardest test for the Rovers' front-pairing to date. It should be a fascinating contest of brains and brawn.
From when I first saw the fixture list, I saw this one as a test for the Rovers. After reading a bit and watching a bit of Crawley, my opinion has not changed.
Enjoy the match everyone!
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