Rovers v Walsall

Last Time Out....

Well, it all had to come to an end didn't it?  No team can not lose indefinitely away from home and so it was for the Rovers.  In typical Rovers' style, we do our losing to the 3rd-bottom club in the table having beaten those who, we would say, should have been more difficult to beat.  Surprising?  Well.....somehow not really.

Rovers had been inactive in a competitive sense for two weeks prior to the game and Bury hadn't.  Take a team that's played no football and put them against a team that are fighting for their very lives and what do you expect to happen?

Some may have noticed that I didn't produce a blog last week.  That's not quite true, I actually produced it on my I-Pad, but struggled to post it.  Realizing that the problems were due to the I-Pad being clogged by lots of past drafts, I deleted all past drafts and tried to post again.  Unfortunately, in my enthusiasm in deleting, I deleted the current Blog and uploaded the first draft, which was spartan in it's formatting to say the least.

Had I posted what I had originally written about our fixture at Bury, you would have seen that I predicted an easy win for the Rovers.  In this case, and this case only (until the next time), I reserve the rite to be completely hypocritical in using hindsight to say "I told you so" should Rovers lose.

Yeah, we were rubbish.  Listening in, I had absolutely no feeling of confidence throughout the game.  But at least we broke our record when it comes to avoiding defeat away from home before last week's dross.

....and Meanwhile

The Saddlers were treating a team in the lower league positions in exactly the way in which you would expect them be treated.  Yes, they might be able to beat a plastic, premier league club but against a proper team like Walsall, Oldham were shown to be what they are.  Relegation candidates.

There were a couple of flutters in defence to start with for Walsall.  Difficulties in clearing their lines; too little strength in the centre-backs, which resulted in Oldham taking the lead.  But it was just early jitters.

James Baxendale, yeah, the decent player from Thorne, scored the first.  If you like watching the video of Rovers v Arsenal from that fantastic league cup run, it was very much like McIndoe's goal in that one.  Then another familiar name took over.

Jamie Paterson, remember him?  Well, its not him, but I suspect it's his son.  Anyway, he scored with a fine effort from outside the area and, in injury-time, slotted the ball between the Oldham goalie's legs Chris Brown style.

Walsall 3 : 1 Oldham.  

Earlier this Season....

...day 1 to be precise, and Donny put on their most impressive opening day show for years in thumping the Saddlers 3 : 0  at the Banks' Stadium.  Defensive errors allowed Chris Brown to bundle home Rovers' first before David Cotterill put the first of his many entries for goal of the season into the back of the net.  Was it 45 or 50 yards?  That was the only discussion point.  Brilliant?  No discussion!

To finish off the scoring, it fell to Kyle Bennett to cut in from his wing in familiar fashion and loop an exquisite right-foot finish into the Walsall goal.  Was Bennett to become league 1's equivalent of Frank Lampard?....errrr.......NO!  But it was a great goal.

The Season so Far....

Well, if we're to forget that first day tonking by the Rovers, Walsall didn't start the season badly at all. It was another 5 matches before they tasted defeat again although after that, there came a lean spell.

After two further wins against Preston and Bournemouth, there was a period of 13 league games without a win.  But now, they are on six wins from the last 8 league games.  Certainly, its been feast or famine this season for Saddlers fans.

Season High: 5th (September)
Season Low: 19th (November)

....and so to the Game

Looking at the recent stats, it could be very entertaining today.  Walsall have been creating plenty of chances on their travels while improving at taking them too.  But their defence has been leaky, especially late on.

That good form of late has more been at the Banks Stadium rather that on their travels, where they have continued to be "up and down".

Rovers have picked up their form at home, starting to create more chances.  Its just that the forward line seem to lose the ruthlessness they display in front of goal during away fixtures when in front of a home crowd.  Why is that?

Defensively, the team was brilliant in their last home game, but against an in-form Walsall who could conceivably creep into the play-offs, I suspect they will be stretched a bit more than a toothless Orient could manage.

James Adcock takes charge of the game tomorrow.  He's split his games between the bottom two divisions this season.  Neither team has had the pleasure of his officiating and so far he's shown 79 yellows and 6 reds in 31 games.

Forum Corner

I was delighted at the backlash that didn't come after Bury ended Rovers' fabulous away run.  Quite right too!  It's one game.  All I saw were philosophical comments and a fair amount of humble pie being troughed by fans who were a little bullish in their predictions prior to last Saturday.  Other than that, we're still waiting with trepidation to see the final 5 home and away kits from which the fans will vote their favourites.

In the preliminary voting, I didn't reveal my preferences.  I felt the poll had been deliberately organized such that there could not be online lobbying and considered this a correct decision.  Now we've done the preliminary voting, I'll say this.  PLEASE DON'T TURN ME INTO A BLOODY JOCKEY with that gold cross on violet monstrosity.  I'm a big guy.  I'll look ridiculous in silks.  Also as a point of order, I think it very unlikely that this is the first kit worn by the Rovers as some have suggested.  Looking at "Donny: Doncaster Rovers FC The Complete History", the original kit is not described.  The first kit described heralds from 1883 and was "Blue Jerseys, White Knickerbockers and Blue stockings".

The Saddlers are lamenting the departures of a couple of the coaching staff.  David Kelly has made a bizarre decision to become Billy Davies' assistant at Nottingham Forest.  For me, taking any job at Forest at the moment requires a bizarre decision.  Davies has become the 8th appointment to the manager's position at the City Ground between 2011 and today.  If I were Kelly or Davies, I'd target still being in work at the end of the month.

The second departure from the Banks stadium is goalkeeping coach, Jimmy Walker.  Somehow, I think Walker's departure will be a little more lamented than Kelly's.  Walker was a club great.

As regards their chances against the Rovers, not too much being said but I think with what is being said, they are slightly underestimating Rovers due to that home record.  Yes, its only the 10th best in the division but it's been better of late.  Whereas Walsall's away form has been inconsistent.

Anyway, we'll know come 5:00 pm.  Enjoy the game everyone.