DONCASTER ROVERS				3		0		TRANMERE ROVERS
Brown (pen 5)
Mason (30)
33	G Woods							1	O fon Williams
21	S Hird							2	M Kay
14	T Spurr							3	Z Bakayogo
3	G Friend							6	M McChrystal (Raven 66)
5	R Naylor (Keegan 60)							5	I Goodison
13	R Mason (Baxendale 75)							10	R Weir
18	S Gillett							11	A Robinson
26	J Coppinger							8	J Welsh
16	J Oster							25	M Devaney (Akins 62)
9	C Brown (Barnes 63)							9	M Tiryaki (Showumni 46)
23	K Bennett							14	A McGurk
Subs								Subs
1	N Sullivan							13	A Coughlin
34	E Wilding							12	A Taylor
20	O Radford							19	D Raven
25	J Baxendale							16	D Buchanan
30	P Keegan							4	J Labadie
17	G Barnes							17	L Akins
37	J Ball							7	E Showumni

FUZZY STATS

DONCASTER
		Off T	On T	Goals	Assist	Offside	Fouls Drawn	Fouls	Saves	Yellow	Red
33	Woods								3
21	Hird						2	2
14	Spurr						1	1
3	Friend
5	Naylor						1
13	Mason	1	3	1		1	1	2
18	Gillett	1	1					1
26	Coppinger	0	2		1	1	2
16	Oster	1
9	Brown	0	1	1	1	1		1
23	Bennett	1	2	1
Subs
30	Keegan							2
17	Barnes	2				1	1
25	Baxendale
TRANMERE
		Off Target	On Target	Goals	Assist	Offside	Fouls Drawn	Fouls	Saves	Yellow	Red
1	fon Williams								6
2	Kay
3	Bakayogo						1	1
6	McChrystal	2
5	Goodison	0	1
10	Weir
11	Robinson						3	1
8	Welsh						2	2		1
25	Deveney
9	Tiryaki					1		2
14	McGurk	0	1				1	2
Subs
7	Showumni						2
17	Akins
19	Raven	1

FUZZY'S FUZZY VIEW 

(THE BEST REPORT ON THE NET FROM 800 MILES FROM THE ACTION)

A dominant performance for Doncaster to ease through to the 2^nd round of the league cup but at the cost of losing Ryan Mason to what looks like a serious ankle injury.

It took Donny just 5 minutes to get onto the scoreboard.  Spurr found Coppinger in the area and he duly had his legs taken away by Welsh for a stone-wall penalty.  CHRIS BROWN made no mistake with the spot-kick placing it into the bottom left corner to provide the ideal start.

A minute later and Brown had a free header to double his tally but he failed to connect properly on to Coppinger’s corner.  The Rovers winger had started well and was the next to test the Tranmere ‘keeper but not too seriously. 

Tranmere then had a little spell of their own.  Devaney put in a great cross between the goalkeeper and the back 4, but the Tranmere striker could not get there.  The resulting corner resulted in a cross from Tiryaki that Friend missed but fortunately so did everyone else. 

Rovers were looking very assured though and were playing the possession football for which they have gained their reputation.  In midfield, Coppinger, Bennett and Mason were interchanging well leabving Tranmere chasing shadows.  Brown was having a great game up front and on 26 minutes received a ball from Coppinger, turned well and force a good save from fon Williams but a second goal was on its way.

It came on 30 minutes from another nice string of passes from Donny ending with a 1-2 between Brown and  RYAN MASON who finished the corner of the 6 yard area.  Again the Rovers scorer nearly doubled his tally immediately.  A corner was played to hird who’s cross found the young midfielder unmarked and his header borught the best out of fon Williams again.  Two minutes later, the Ryan Mason show continued with a shot from the edge of the area.  Again fon Williams made a great save.

Tranmere’s best effort of the half came when McGurk latched onto a mistake by Spurr but Woods saved well.

It was a classy 45 minutes from the Rovers midfielder with Brown also showing deft touches and the physical presence Donny sometime lack.  Half time and not much to complain about for Roves fans.

 Part two and Rovers were immediately starting where they left off.  A good ball over the top found Bennett and he cleverly tried to lob the Tranmere ‘keeper but again fon Williams was equal to the effort.  Bennett then laid off for Gillett to put a shot just wide. 

Tranmere could have still got into the game and a swift 1-2 put Bakayoko in on goal but Woods was able to save sharply at his feet. 

The third goal of the game was to come at the other end and it was the best goal of the game.  KYLE BENNETT curled his shot into the top corner from 20 yards out.  Rovers certainly weren’t settling for 3 though and Mason was the nect to try his luck, shooting just wide but then what had been a great evening started to turn sour.  Brown chased a long clearanc that he was never going to reach and grimaced as he pulled up.  The substitution was quickly made with Barnes coming onto the field.  But worse was to come.  Much worse.  Mason proved too skillful for Welsh and the Tranmere captains lunge left him on the floor clutching his ankle.  A silent Keepmoat watched as a leg-brace was applied and the stretcher was employed on the third Rovers player in 2 matches.  It was later reported by the commentary team that Mason had damaged his ankle ligaments.

The atmosphere was muted from that point on with Rovers fans happy with the win and performance but lamenting yet more terrible luck with injuries.  Barnes narrowly missed the free-kick given for the Mason incident.  Barnes, Coppinger and Oster all had reasonable efforts in the time remaining  but it was to finish 3:0.

Plenty of positives for the Rovers, especially in the performances of the new players to the squad.  But the Mason injury cast a huge shadow over the evening.  Here’s hoping its not as bad as it looked, but I fear it is.