Doncaster Rovers v Leyton Orient

LAST TIME OUT...

If anyone thought the departure of Colonel Saunders would make the Rovers chicken, they weren't reckoning with the simple fact that Corporal Jones (now promoted to major) is still very much around.

 

The first half wasn't much. Nip and tuck as they say with Rovers creating the only real opening for Iain Hume's shot to be well saved by Steve Arnold. But it all livened up in the second half. A lovely volley from James Dunne gave the home side the lead but Rovers rallied. Arnold could only push Dave Syer's strike into the path of Iain Hume and it was level. Stevenage have bad habit of conceding late on and so it was that deep into injury time Rob Jones crashed home Cotterill's corner and Rovers had all three points away from home yet again. We'd have settled for a draw to pick up the club record 12 away games unbeaten but why not win the thing?

 

MEANWHILE...

A little further South, in the capital, Leyton Orient were entertaining Crewe Alexandra. Amazingly, the Os could have been three up by the time Lee Cook had the easy task of firing home after Steve Phillips could only push Dean Cox's cross straight to him. By this time David Mooney and Charlie MacDonald, on his debut had both hit the woodwork while Mooney should have done better when one-on-one with Phillips.

 

But for the first time this season, Orient did not go on to win after taking a lead. 13 minutes after the opener, the Orient right back lost track of Byron Moore's run and Alex were level. And thats how it stayed. Plenty for Rovers to think about on the evidence of that. Mooney seems to pull the strings and Lee Cook also looks a useful player.

 

EARLIER THIS SEASON...

Standard fare at Brisbane Road for the Rovers as they brought a 4-match unbeaten run to an end for the home side.

 

First half goals from Iain Hume and David Cotterill did the damage and despite second half pressure from the Os, the Twin Towers of Rob Jones and Jamie McCoombe limited their chnces to a minimum.

 

 

 

THE SEASON SO FAR...

Its been either feast or famine for the O's. They win three then lose three, lose 4 then win 5. It must be very frustrating!

 

I've already mentioned that excellent statistic of only losing two points after taking the lead in a match, a record that only Rovers can equal. But then you look at Orient's record having gone behind. Absolutely shocking - they have only rescued one point from a losing situation all season.

 

Sadly, that inconsistency has put paid to Orient's season. Mid-table obscurity for them.

 

...AND SO TO THE GAME

 

Perhaps not as straight forward for Rovers as the league tables might suggest. Orient have picked up their away form a bit of late and are taking plenty of shots while scoring a good proportion of them.

 

If either team gets in front, they are likely to stay there, that much has been proven all season. But its that lack of resilience to going behind that I think will be Orient's undoing.

 

Rovers may be tempted to have a go at Orient and try to get that lead. But they could be better advised to bide their time while steadily turning up the heat. Orient's second half record isn't good.

 

FORUM CORNER

 

The first thing I'll mention is congratulations to "The LJ Monk" who for me got a better video of the winning goal against Stevenage than the Football League Show. You can see it here.

But there is an obvious subject of common interest - the appointment of Bryan Flynn and Rob Jones as manager and player-coach respectively. And it's been an almost universally popular appointment with the Rovers faithful, in fact, I haven't seen a single negative comment. Reading what the Doncaster press had to say, player-power played it's part in the decision. Complete unity of players, fans and club management. Good to have!

 

Otherwise, mysteriously Sky have somehow found Donny! Not one but two TV games have been announced. First there's the away match at Crawley Town on 18th February (KO 7:45pm) and the on 1st April against Swindon Town at the Keepmoat (KO 12:15pm). Good news for your Swiss correspondent!

 

Onto Orient's boards and first a common theme seen on both boards. Unity from all fans at the sacking of Nigel Adkins by Southampton. Who would be a football manager? In what other profession would two successive years of demonstrable success (promotions) followed by moving your organization to compete with the big boys within a year be rewarded with your P45? Imagine Eddie Stobbart growing to compete on a worldwide basis with FedEx and then sacking their MD and you're about there! It makes me think of the successes Liverpool (Shankley, Paisley, Fagan...), Man United and Crewe (Gradi) had with a strategy of continuity. The loss of continuity was one of my reasons for being so opposed to the sacking of Sean O'Driscoll from Donny. I now celebrate the fact that promotion from within seems the order of the day at the mo.

 

Back to Orient and the majority of Orient fans seem to think Saturday's game will be postponed or Donny will win easily. Have they seen our home form? A new game show hosted by pub landlord, Al Murray called Fact Hunt is also attracting comment. OK, so now we have the level of the Orient fan. If that disgusting apology of a human being hadn't disgraced my club in the toilets of Brisbane Road, I'd be getting quite hoity-toity by now.

PROMOTION TRACKER

I forgot to put this on the last Blog so since the last time I looked, Rovers have won both games played. Not surprisingly then, the trend lines are still predicting a League 1 title with 87 points!

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Stevenage v Doncaster Rovers

Last Time Out

After the thrills and spills of New Year's day, Rovers delivered a lacklustre performance to eventually grab a win they hardly deserved against Colchester.  Certainly for the first half, Rovers had been 2nd best but improved after the break.  David Cotterill finally hit his 10th of the season with a characteristically spectacular solo effort and Colchester were left to rue that for all their good work, they only managed one shot on target compared with Rovers' five.  In the end, that's the difference between top and bottom.

Dean Saunders perhaps spent a little more time watching the match than usual.  Suddenly realizing how dire performances could be at the Keepmoat, he decided he'd seen enough and left to join Wolves taking Brian Carey and Mal Purchase with him!  Fortunately, Rovers club management saw fit to recruit a ready made replacement, at least on an interim basis quite a while ago.  Bryan Flynn is charged with the task of seamless transition to the post Saunders era, ably assisted by Rob Jones. 

Meanwhile....

Stevenage took maximum points away from the Alexandria Stadium, which isn't the easiest of things to do this season.  They had to come back to do it as well as Crewe took the lead on 33 minutes with Chucks Aneke's first time shot from Pogba's cut back.  It all changed for Stevenage after the break as they prevented the Railwaymen from shooting in the second half.  On 55, leading scorer Lucas Akins made it 9 for the season finishing from 6 yards before the points were sealed on the hour by his strike partner Marcus Haber.

Akins goal was a bit scrappy but he looks a decent prospect.  A good finisher with plenty of tricks, not least of which was the overhead-kick pass he used to play in Haber for the winner.  The other Stevenage player who caught my eye was Gregg Tansey.  He looked comfortable on the ball and can hit a free-kick.

Earlier This Season...

At the Keepmoat, Rovers frustrated Stevenage by coming back to grab a point in a scrappy game.  It was route 1 stuff for the majority of the first half with Stevenage taking a 16th minute lead through Oliver Risser.

Stevenage seemed to settle for that goal as Rovers stepped it up.  In the 79th minute, Chris Brown grabbed an equalizer and set up a frenetic final 10 minutes.  Stevenage held on though and it finished honours even.

The Season So Far

Well it started very well for 'Boro and they rose to a season-high second place in October.  In fact it actually took until mid-October for Colchester to inflict their first league defeat.  Losing has since become more of a habit with 'Boro losing four of their last 8, dropping briefly to a season-low 12th before last week's victory.

Like Rovers, Stevenage have proved to be a tougher proposition away from home.  The question 'Boro fans will be looking to answer is whether that win last week was a flash in the pan or whether a temporary glitch has now been ironed out.

That good away record and poor home record has led to Stevenage actually performing slightly better than the Rovers away from home in the fixtures against the same opponents.  At home in these fixtures, Donny have won 3 points more than Stevenage.  Bizarre but true!

And so to the game...

Donny-History beckons for the team as avoiding defeat on Saturday will hand the team a club record of 12 matches unbeaten away from home.  That table makes the prospects look good.  Stevenage have been making it a little too easy for opponents to score against them at home especially of late.  The predatory nature of Donny's forwards should take advantage of that, and if they do, away from home, nobody is better than Donny at making scoring goal difficult for the home team.

The goal distributions may tempt Rovers to start the match in positive fashion.  Stevenage don't look to be the best of starters, while Rovers do well early on.  But, after going behind early, Stevenage do look to get back into the game quickly, scoring most of their goals in the second 15 minutes of the match.  

Rovers should also be aware that although 'Boro have been guilty of throwing away a few too many winning situations this season, they are the comeback kings of the division, picking up an impressive 14 points from losing situations.

From Donny, there's been a great show of confidence from Caretaker-Manager Bryan Flynn.  We're the best team in the league and how nice it is to take charge of a club doing so well.   At the same time, though respectful of Stevenage.  Impressive and very organized were his words.  As far as injuries are concerned, only Martin Woods at the moment and confirmed that Chris Brown is fine.  Billy Paynter remains suspended.

Gary Smith was also predictably positive after the very good win at Crewe.  He hailed a very positive performance, never mind the result at Alexandra Stadium and claimed the positivity from that result had been carried into training.   Whilst accepting its no easy task, he's looking for his team to get after Doncaster.  Nice - could be just what we want them to do!

Stevenage also are OK when it comes to injuries.  Jon Ashton is the only player definitely out.

Chris Sarginson will take charge of the game refereeing the Rovers for the second time this season.  On the first occasion, against Bury, he dismissed Bury captain Steven Schumacher but otherwise kept his cards in his pockets.  His refereeing has been mainly split between the bottom two divisions of the football league where he awards and average two cards per game.

Forum Corner

No prizes for guessing the major subject of conversation on the Rovers boards this week.  The boards are full of speculation with everyone from Pep Guardiola to Flockton Grey getting a mention.  Pep would be cool and why not?  Rovers have probably gone managerless in one of the best positions any side has found themselves in this situation so its a promotion opportunity where a lot of the hard work has been done.  Give him a sneaky E-Mail, it would be worth for th reply to frame and hang up in the Rovers' bar!  As for Flockton, well the guy who suggested that really was flogging a dead horse (drum roll - cymbal crash)

On Stevenage's Boro' chat  the first thread to attract my attention was "Ball Kicked".  Come on 'Boro!  For both of us the conference was years ago.  Its been a long time since that was an achievement!  The full entry reads "Ball Kicked" by Wasp today at 18:47.  Well if a bloody wasp moved the ball, I wouldn't want to meet it on a dark night!

Apparently, 'Boro's players kick the balls in training so hard that they burst.  Seriously, I just thought "Balls kicked" on a football forum was quite funny.  Go into the thread and it gets better!  Not much about the match though - just speculation about Gary Smith moving up North.  He'll 'av to learn to talk reet if 'i duz!

The Crazy World of Football?

Goodbye Deano

At first sight, it could be said that the fates of Doncaster Rovers' last two managers over the last few days exemplifies how detached football is from the real world. Wolves dismiss their manager and so are in search of an able replacement. They find themselves, through quite extraordinary chance choosing between the last and the current Rovers' managers.

On the one hand there is Sean O'Driscoll. Drizzy was sacked by Forest while the team was in a position for which Wolves would currently give their eye-teeth, just one point from the play-off places in the championship. With Doncaster Rovers he achieved promotion before exceeding all expectations for two seasons in the championship and has one of the best reputations for playing attractive football in the league. And for a cherry on the cake, the man is a life-long Wolves fan.

Then there's Dean Saunders. Deano would have achieved promotion from the conference with Wrexham had he not been tempted by the bright lights of the championship and Donny. He would have achieved promotion back to the championship had he not been tempted by the bright lights of Wolverhampton. In the end, the only league finish that he has on his CV is a last place in the championship. His football nous is limited to a tactic that works very well away from home but not at home.

So who do you choose? Dean Saunders of course!

And of course in what I have written so far, I have missed some salient points that explain the decision. First of all that relegation can be explained. Rovers had made an appauling start to the relegation season while O'Driscoll was in charge and then there was the hair-brained Willy McKay scheme that put paid to the development of the team spirit Dean would need to get out of the relegation places. But wasn't Dean all for the scheme at the time? Of course he was, but the Wolves chairman is looking for justification to appoint, not justification to reject.

This season, Deano has reincarnated the Phoenix from the ashes of last season. Ironically, having joined the club backing a scheme that would obviously destroy team-spirit, he has created a team with bucket-loads of it. Just two points dropped from winning positions; a creditable nine points recovered from losing positions and on the verge of achieving a club-record 12 match unbeaten run away from home. This is just what a team needs to get out of relegation trouble.

And then there's the most important thing of all. Personal recommendation, and here the real world and the football world coincide. A CEO is much more likely to appoint on a personal recommendation than any other way as it saves a lot of hassle interpreting CVs and interviews and at the same time psychologically removes some responsibility.

So a crazy decision? Not at all, just a bad decision for both Wolves, Rovers and I fear Dean Saunders.

Deano's tactics of getting the ball forwards and into the box quickly are statistically proven to be the most effective way to win football matches. That may sound a good thing, but it isn't necessarily. The problem is that everyone knows that these tactics are the most effective so the majority of managers play this way out of preference. So, to win consistently this way, you need a team that is better at applying the tactic than your opponents.

I haven't seen Wolves this season, but their league position would suggest that they do not have a team who can do this. The alternative is to have other strings to your bow such as possession football or playing on the counter. For me, Deano has yet to show that he has these weapons in his armoury and I think this is in part the cause of Rovers' disappointing home record.

Dean may give Wolves the spirit they need, but I don't think his tactical ability is developed enough for the championship. I can't see him powering Wolves up the table and even if the chairman settles for survival this season, I can't see him settling for anything less than play-offs next season. In other words, Dean has a great deal to learn and achieve to avoid not being sacked by this time next year.

Doncaster currently have a team that is on course for the league one title. While Dean was in charge, I would not have bet against them achieving exactly this but now he's gone, everything is thrown into the balance. Hopefully a new manager will be able to quickly rectify the dip in morale that Dean's departure will inevitably bring. But I would rather not have had to take the risk.

I wish Wolves and Dean Saunders the best of luck of course but fear that within a year both will be regretting their decisions.

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Doncaster Rovers v Colchester United

Last Time Out....

12785 saw Rovers dominate the Blades but be forced to settle for a point in an South Yorkshire Derby thriller.  A second penalty in two games from Billy Paynter and a third in three games for David Syers looked to have given Rovers the points but the Blades had other ideas.

In the last 10 minutes, they won a penalty that Nick Blackman duly converted; Billy Paynter was sent off after a clash with Tony McMahon and immediately after that Dave Kitson scored after a scramble to give the Blades a point they hardly deserved.

After the game, an understandably disappointed Dean Saunders raged against the referee.  He cited three decisions; not sending off Blades' 'keeper George Long for the foul on Dave Syers that gave Rovers their penalty; the award of United's penalty and the sending off of Billy Paynter as decisions that the referee got wrong.

My opinion?  Dean's correct on the sending off of Long.  Syers was in the process of rounding the 'keeper when fouled and therefore the incident would resulted in an obvious goal-scoring opportunity had he no been fouled.  That's all that's needed for a red card.  The Laws of the Game say nothing about whether players get back or not.  This is a media invented guideline.

However I do think the Blades' penlaty was fair.  Andy Griffin was hauling on Ironside's shirt and he went down.  Its a penalty.

On the final one, sadly the cameras didn't catch the incident between Paynter and McMahon so I can't give an opinion.  Rovers have said that they won't be appealing the red card as the match video didn't catch the incident.

Meanwhile...

Colchester's poor form continued with a 3 : 0 away defeat at Crawley. It was an opportunity for the Us as Crawley had gone nine weeks previously without a win at home.

It took just 5 minutes for the home side to take the lead. Mark Cousins kept out Josh Simpson's goal-bound header only to present Mark Connolly with a tap in. Colchester tried to get on terms before the break and enjoyed the majority of possession. Unfortunately, after the break they were limited to just 1 shot on goal as Crawley finished off the job.

A poor clearance from Cousin's allowed Billy Clarke to fire home on 71 minutes two minute from the end, Nicky Adams was put through by Hope Akpan to chip over the 'Keeper.

Looking at the game, I saw all kinds of problems on the right-hand side of the Us defence.  Players left unmarked, players getting the wrong side of the defender you name it, it was happening.  I also saw some occasions where the ball carrier was put under so little pressure that he could basically do what he wanted.  The best example was when a midfielder was allowed to chip the ball up before hitting a long volleyed pass to a running striker who nearly scored.

Colchester Manager Joe Dunne is obviously becoming frustrated with the Us giving away sloppy goals, claiming that he could simply take a tape recorder into the dressing room and press play as they are saying the same things over and over again.

Earlier this season...

David Cotterill was the U's main tormentor. Three minutes in, he latched onto a suicidal ball out from Cousin's to loop in the opener. Magnus Okuonghae on the half hour gave the Us some hope with a deflected shot from the edge of the area that went in off the post. After the break, Cotterill's dangerous free-kick was headed by Andrew Bond into his own net.

 

The Season So Far...

Not good for the Us! 20th place coming into the New Year and 4 points behind 19th (Oldham) with a game in hand. Below them, Portsmouth will take a 10-point penalty but then there are still Bury and Scunthorpe only two points adrift.

What is more worrying for the Us is that things are currently getting worse rather than better. They come to the Keepmoat with 9 defeats in the last 10 outings. Prior to that, they had a period of 5 wins and a draw from 7, which included the scalps of Stevenage and Swindon.

With things looking especially bleak for Portsmouth and Hartlepool, Colchester need to recapture that form to pull themselves clear of the third and fourth relegation places.

The league tables show that Colchester's home record is actually similar to that of the Rovers. It's not too surprising then, that in the comparison of results against the same opponents, Colchester have actually fare better than Donny at home, gaining three more points in this fixtures.

But unfortunately for Colchester, they are not at home on Saturday. Away from home, only Hartlepool have a worse record.

And so to the game

That awful away record plus awful form at the moment should mean that Rovers will be too strong for the Us.  Currently, the Us are needing an average of 13 shots to register on the scoreboard.  So far this season, they have achieved more than 13 shots in a game just twice away from home this season.

The goal distribution shows difficulties coming to the end of games.  In the last 15 minutes of games, they have a -8 goal difference so do they tire?

At this stage, I don't think anyone can see an away win apart from the most optimistic Colchester fans.  According to reports on the forums, a maximum of 100 look like making the trip up North so it would seem very few of them feel this way.

But I bet the same was said of Hartlepool on Boxing Day!

Rovers could have a small striker crisis going into the game.  Billy Paynter will be suspended after that red card on New Year's day;  Chris Brown and Robbie Blake are both injured.  Iain Hume was substituted on New Year's day.  The word on the forums is that the change was due to cramp so Hume should be OK for Saturday.  I hope they're right!

Other than that, they have secured their first signing of the January transfer window, with midfielder Lee Fowler joining from Fleetwood Town.  Paul Quinn is doubtful and so Andy Griffin, who has signed until the end of the season could come in.

For the Us, loan signing George Porter will be pushing to start after making his debut from the bench on New Year's day and their attcking options have been increased some more with Dominic Samuel joining from Reading.  But there are a few setbacks in defence.  Josh Thompson must serve a suspension after a red card against Brentford and West Ham have recalled Dan Potts.

The referee for the game is Tony Bates, a 51 year old from Staffordshire.  Tony has reffed games in all three football league divisions this season showing on average 2.6 yellow cards per game.  In his 14 matches this season, he has shown just 1 red card.

Forum Corner

After the smash and grab raid made by Sheffield United, the Rovers Forum released chagrin in the direction of Dave Kitson.  Kitson was of course responsible for cheating his way to two goals in Portsmouth's 4 : 3 win over Rovers last season (an amazing game, never before have I seen a team score 3 goals that I would have disallowed).  Its made him the man Rovers' fans love to hate.  Unfortunately, he thrives on the bad-boy image so I preferred Dean Saunders' reaction when asked about Kitson's over the top goal celebration.

"I'm not interested in Dave Kitson" said Saunders bluntly.  Let's see him thrive on that!

After initial disdain for the referee's decisions, it was good to see changes of opinion being put in writing after seeing the video.  I've seen Rover' fans agreeing with the ref on all three decisions in hindsight.  Sporting as ever!

Sadly, there's always a couple of fans who having seen a very good performance cannot help themselves by voicing undue criticism.  One blamed the substitutions even though all three were enforced; another tweeted in to drfc_official that "another lead had been thrown away #silly".  If the tweeter had checked this blog, they would have known that we'd actually just lost our first points of the season from a winning position #illinformed!

On Colchester's cu-fcchat.com the first thing that struck me was an "Always look on the bright side of life" (Optomists Anonymous) thread that wasn't hijacked by the doom-mongers.  As one poster says, Luton, Darlington, Chester, Halifax, Grimsby, Mansfield, Cambridge, Wrexham, Lincoln, Plymouth and, believe it or not, Bristol Rovers are in worse shape than Colchester.  Very true but after losing 9 from 10, I can accept it's hard to appreciate.

Another thread suggests that Dunne be sacked and replaced with Sean O'Driscoll.  I'd suggest that about 25% of clubs in the football league have fans suggesting O'Driscoll as a manager and most of fans posting on the thread are realistic enough to doubt whether Sean could be attracted to Essex.  But the thread did reveal how fans felt about the current management.  The original post and the comments make for a 50/50 split on sacking Dunne.  

Whatever is decided, the U's have a tough second half of the season in front of them, and I wish them luck.

Promotion Progress

As things stand at the moment the best fit progress lines suggest that come May:

Champions - 86 Points

Runners Up - 83 Points

6th Place - 75 Points

Doncaster Rovers.........86 Points (Blame me when it doesn't happen)