DONCASTER ROVERS
V
BRISTOL CITY
Derby defeats all around for these two sides with Donny a little more sick of the bloody word "Derby" than are Bristol. Both teams are now using the the "concentrating on the league" cliché after Bristol were beaten by a single goal by Swindon Town and Rovers, of course lost to the odd goal in three to Leeds.
It was agonising for Donny as on the night Leeds were more than matched. In fact, in the opening half hour, the possession statistics (81:19) proved, if proof were needed that Leeds hardly got a kick. But dominating possession and losing has been a familiar theme this season. In the end, two strikes from 20 yards plus had Donny losing 5 out of 5 against opposition from their own league. That said, it was a very bright performance and one that gave much hope to the Donny faithful.
For the Robins, I suspect that defeat at home to the Robins had very few moments of encouragement. Non-football fans would expect the manager's apology about the performance after the match would stop expat fans from going on "player" and watching the extended highlights. I bet it didn't though. Football fans are a breed apart when it comes to shared suffering.
"If 5308 fans can have their Tuesday night spoilt, I have to take a little pain on the Wednesday!" they'd have thought. I know this because its exactly why I listened to the Derby game to the bitter end and then watched the highlights (...someone call trading standards!)
I promise Donny fans, that's the last time I use the D-word!
It was agonising for Donny as on the night Leeds were more than matched. In fact, in the opening half hour, the possession statistics (81:19) proved, if proof were needed that Leeds hardly got a kick. But dominating possession and losing has been a familiar theme this season. In the end, two strikes from 20 yards plus had Donny losing 5 out of 5 against opposition from their own league. That said, it was a very bright performance and one that gave much hope to the Donny faithful.
For the Robins, I suspect that defeat at home to the Robins had very few moments of encouragement. Non-football fans would expect the manager's apology about the performance after the match would stop expat fans from going on "player" and watching the extended highlights. I bet it didn't though. Football fans are a breed apart when it comes to shared suffering.
"If 5308 fans can have their Tuesday night spoilt, I have to take a little pain on the Wednesday!" they'd have thought. I know this because its exactly why I listened to the Derby game to the bitter end and then watched the highlights (...someone call trading standards!)
I promise Donny fans, that's the last time I use the D-word!
DONCASTER ROVERS
...if we can get a reserve or behind closed doors game then they should be able to get up to speed pretty quickly, we just don't want to push them too soon. - Sean O'Driscoll
Wise words from Sean beacause as much as I was delighted to hear Jimmy O'Connor and Brian Stock coming off the bench, its also good to hear that we're resisting throwing them in too early. This is something that I fear we may have done in the past and therefore a reason why we are the mess with injuries in which we find ourselves.
This was a good interview. It started with O'Driscolls warm loathing of the press as he fielded the traditionally imaginative "So what did you make of that, Sean?".
"I think we need to score more goals and concede less". Great stuff!
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| Kyle Bennett - Keep your feet on the ground |
I was also pleased with what he had to say about Kyle Bennett. To paraphrase him, (he rambled a bit as he can do) he was basically telling the lad that he had to keep his feet on the ground and keep learning.
Kyle has been hailed as a real new starlet by Donny fans and from what I've heard and seen this season, he is every bit of that. He needs some careful managing now though, to help him not to make mistakes like the first effort he put onto the post on Tuesday night.
There were about 10 easier ways to score that chance, the one he chose was the arrogant curler towards the top corner. I bet it would come off for him 9 times out of 10 too, but the 10 other ways would come off 99 times in 100.
I decided early on that I was going to put a bit of video in this blog. Hayter's goal on his first game back? Kyle's miss followed by Fuzzy's friendly words of advice. No, neither. I decided on a shout for Gary Woods. He's had some negativity on the forums, which I'm not sure is needed by the youngest 'keeper in the championship. So, I've put something up that shows what a great 'keeper this guy could become. This is great 'keeping.
Also, for Kyle, it shows much more expereinced players can't do one-on-ones and I reckon he'd have caught Max Gradel with another 20 yards.
BRISTOL CITY
Sorry Robins fans, but my head went in my hands when I heard that. Millen doesn't always let the players watch the match video, he just tells them what went wrong or right! Now I know I'm not a football manager but I have trained people for a living. A picture does speak a thousand words and also if you can get someone to come to their own conclusions as to what worked / didn't work, they are much more likely to accept where they went wrong. Strange practice with the match video. Very strange.
The Bristol fans have been as close to the divine wind (google it if you don't get it) as Rovers fans if you look at the forums and they've got 4 points for christ's sake. A significant number of fans on the prediction thread of the Bristol City Fans Forum are suggesting a Rovers win. There are threads titled "Do you care anymore?"; "Worst game since..";"How do you motivate a team". I really hope Hemlock doesn't grow wild in the West country.
So what is their problem. First up, that game against Swindon. Well, I saw how it would end at the beginning. The Swindon central strikers were being given acres of space right from the off. I noticed one fan predicted a 4:0 win for Rovers tomorrow. Defending like that against Billy Sharp and it would be. Unfortunately, Billy won't be there on Saturday, but I'm sure James Hayter would have felt good watching that.
Against Portsmouth and it didn't really get better defensively. If I were Millen, I would definately draw diagrams on the blackboard to show those central defenders where they are going wrong. Sean O'Driscoll would have them watching the video but I'm not going to start being dispariging of traditional values. The commentator described Bristol as being rarely troubled. You do sometimes wonder about their powers of retention but I will agree that they should have been more troubled.
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| Nicky Maynard - Potential Match Winner - on his day |
But City were able to beat Leicester and with Leicester having spent the trade deficit on their squad in the closed season, surely that can be no mean feat. My first impression when I watched this performance was "Aha! So that's who Nicky Maynard is!" I checked the line-ups for the other two games I watched and, true, Nicky did not feature against Swindon. Against Posrtsmouth, he didn't either, the difference being that he did occupy one of the shirts available. Against Leicester he was very impressive!
Now I don't know. I know Maynard is a match-winner and I don't know whether the two sets of highlights I saw reflect fairly how inconsistent he can be. But if it does and there's a £3M price tag in the offering, make sure you have a taxi ready.
I also picked up that the defence wasn't so bad in the Leicester game. Leicester seemed more limited to efforts from range. Now prior to Tuesday, I'd have said that allowing Donny players space in the box would only have confused them so limiting us to long range efforts may well have played to our strengths! After Tuesday, I'll take the Bristol who came out against Portsmouth please!
Enjoy the match.
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