First Trip to Donny for Crawley

DONCASTER ROVERS

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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.

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!

West Ham v Doncaster Rovers

WEST HAM UNITED
 - V - 
DONCASTER ROVERS

Well we haven't quite got a top v bottom clash but it's as close as you get.  We of course, met at the Keepmoat back in August.  Rovers put up a decent showing back then, succumbing to a single Kevin Nolan goal after 5 minutes.  The Hammers line-up that day featured two players who, at that time against all the odds have played football for Donny this term, Herita Ilunga and Tuesday's debutant, Freddy Piquionne.

Sadly, both sides have gone on to prove the bookie's odds correct since our early-season meeting but its tightened up a little at both ends of the table.  While the Hammers champagne remains on ice, Rovers have again, taken a long gulp of self-belief.  Here's hoping it lasts until the end of the season although I do not think the roller-coaster ride is over just yet.

WEST HAM UNITED

Doncaster won at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday and they will get a massive confidence boost from that, but we know that if we can produce our best or close to our best that the result will look after itself.  - Sam Allardyce

Back in August, when I previewed West Ham before their visit to Donny, I ended up with egg on my face.  I was disparaging about their defensive abilities or lack of them.  Four teams have conceded fewer goals this season just as only four teams have conceded more than Donny.  Its a strangely symmetrical fixture on Saturday!

So Hammers, I'm sorry I was disrespectful about your defence back in August.  I'll put it down to watching a a side fresh after a relegation who had yet to build confidence in their new league.

Well looking at a few highlights, very few highlights in the case of the Watford game and the first thing I see is Matt Taylor smacking the ball against the crossbar from a similar distance as Freddy Piquionne's strike for the Rovers on Tuesday.  Obviously there is something in the East-End water.

Other than that, I've not a lot to say.  2 minutes 22 seconds of highlights, 30 seconds of which involved coming out of the tunnel and smiling for the cameras.

Turning to the highlights of the 2:0 win against Cardiff and in the main the Hammers' defence looked solid enough although not error-free.  There were two weak defensive headers, both of which put them in some degree of trouble and a complete failure to deal with a long throw. But plenty was dealt with well, particularly in the first half when the Hammer's defence was really getting in the face of the Welshmen.    There's a possible weakness against quick breaks, but doesn't everyone have that?  Besides, it was Cardiff, who aren't exactly backwards in going forwards.

The real joy of West Ham is at the other end of the pitch though.  Ricardo Vaz Té seems to have been quick to make himself at home in East London and may be keen to make a mends for his no-show against the Rovers when playing for Barnsley earlier in the season.

Goals from Kevin Nolan and George McCartney, after a great run together with the presence of mind together with the presence of mind to follow his own cross into the box, earned West Ham the points.  They could have scored more with Nicky Maynard being the most guilty party for missing chances.

Plenty there for Rovers to think about.

DONCASTER ROVERS

We'll be going there to win.  I'm not really interested in going there and trying to get a draw - we're going there to win. - Dean Saunders

But I bet he'd take the draw right now!  That said, he can't so, of course he's absolutely right.  

At our end of the table, what a difference a win makes!  Not only is it more likely to affect your table position, but it gives the fans a huge lift because the wins aren't happening that often.

For me, its been all the more frustrating as the three games prior to Tuesday evening's trip to Nottingham resulted in just 2 points.  But they coulda, woulda, shoulda have given us all 9 points available.  Leeds were awful against the Rovers but they did keep going.  Leeds are a team with a handy "late goals" habit while Rovers are a team with a hapless "late gift" liability.  If ever anyone should have bet on a injury time winner for the home side, this was it.

Brighton were nearly as bad as Leeds but again, Rovers failed against a team that had played poorly and while Peterborough deserved their point, it was another piece of last minute charity that allowed them their share.  My feeling were that Rovers were unable to close out a game and by not beating teams playing poorly, we were becoming architects of our own demise.

Then, at the City Ground, Forest become the third opponents out of the last four to be below par against the Rovers and, at last we made someone pay.

Freddy Piquionne's wonder-strike followed by Diouf's cross for Kyle Bennett's non too shabby finish was enough to take the points.  Of course Donny don't like their fans to be comfortable so a goal was conceded and a last ditch clearance from Sam Hird was needed to secure those points.  This is by no means by way of complaint.  I'll take it.  I'll become a nervous wreck for the last 15 minutes of each game quite happily as long as Donny win.

Monsieur Piquionne has been mentioned a lot in this article.  Unfortunately, big Sam isn't happy about facing the Frenchman while the Hammers are still paying the majority of his wages but I won't hold that against him.

I'll just say "Thanks" to West Ham.  If Piquionne contributes nothing more to Rovers' season, which I somehow think unlikely, he has given us a moment.

Enjoy!