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. 

Fuzzy's Match Thread: Doncaster v Tranmere

DONCASTER ROVERS
V
TRANMERE ROVERS

Discuss on ja606

Discuss on VSC - Lucky Pint

So now we are all recovered from the DT's caused by the summer football draught, its two games in 4 days as the League Cup gets underway. Yes, lets call it the League Cup. That's what it is and I really can't be bothered to look up who sponsors it these days!

Rovers have a difficult-looking tie against the scousers of Birkenhead. I checked that and despite a Facebook group, telling me to the contrary, there are an awful lot of websites out there proclaiming Birkenhead's Scouseness.

Pretty much like all cup competitions, the League Cup will have us on the edge of our seats, screaming our teams on; have us proclaiming how we are so under-estimated should we beat a big club but have us all saying we could do without it.

Curiously, the two Rovers have never met in this competition although in league competition there is plenty of history between us. The South Yorkshiremen are ahead in the head to head with 33 victories to 19 with 20 matches being drawn.

DONCASTER ROVERS

It's difficult for us because we had 16 players for Saturday, and then we lost 2, so we've got to find another 2 from somewhere - Sean O'Driscoll

This time last season saw Donny slip out of this competition to an extra-time goal from Accrington Stanley's Chris Turner. The Rovers line-up that day could be described as experimental with several of the first team being rested and it is likely to be a similar story on Tuesday night although "resting" could be a euphonism on this occasion.

Perhaps earlier than we thought, we are going to see if we have the strength in depth that we clearly didn't have last season. Along with the enforced absences of Hayter and Sharp, I think Mason, Coppinger, Naylor and Oster could well sit this one out. So I'm predicting 6 changes from Saturday and will be very interested to see how we fair against what will be decent opposition.

With all the doom and gloom around about the loss of Sharp and Hayter, a positive for me is that we're going to see Chris Brown given a decent run.

Football managers often, for obvious reasons get stuck into playing known formulae that they know work. The Sharp / Hayter partnership up front for Rovers is one of these formulae. I remember last season when at the Scunthorpe match, Sharp scored and my friends around me said "OK, now Hayter needs to get his goal", and sure enough, he did.

Leaving a fit Billy Sharp out of a Rovers' side is unthinkable and Hayter's work-rate make dropping him difficult. But back in our league 3 days, Chris bagged 10 goals in a loan period from Sunderland that lasted 22 games. These are still the best statistics that he has posted for anyone in his career. We know he's up to this level as he was typically a pain in the side for us when he played for Preston however he's never been a prolific scorer (except when playing for us). I think Brown getting a run in the side was always going to be initiated by this kind of situation. Let's hope Chris can regain that form he showed back in 2003 and so give Sean a real selection dilemma when Billy and James return to fitness.

TRANMERE ROVERS

They play from the back and every single player they've got is comfortable receiving the ball in tight situations. - Les Parry

So Tranmere's season is up and running with a 1-0 victory against the League 2 Champions, Chesterfield at Prenton Park. Hats off to them! Promoted league champions are a tricky opening fixture, even if you do stick to your game-plan!

Looking at the highlights of that one, all I can say is if those were the highlights, Chesterfield didn't test Tranmere all that much! In fact the highlights only showed one "moment" for the Spirites, a header on goal more or less straight at the 'keeper.

So apart from the one-sidedness of it all, what else struck me. Well, Tranmere looked a big side so I went to their team page and clicked through the first 7 players before finding one under six feet. It could be a bruising encounter then. Just what Rovers want and need!

Looking for a bit more inspiration on what Tranmere are like as a team, I turned to their 3:0 win over Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road. This time, the highlights showed absolutely no Orient threat on Tranmere's goal. Now remember, the Os at this time were on for a play-off birth with Tranmere safely mid-table. I'm starting to get concerned now that we have a team who, if they get it right, can completely shut their opponents down and out.

Robbie Weir, goalscorer on Saturday certainly has a decent corner in his locker as the highlights of that match showed. With all the height Tranmere have at their disposal, Donny will have to watch that.

The other player who caught my eye was Aaron Cresswell, who can really hit them from range. Thankfully (or not) he has moved on to Ipswich so is one to look out for.

After Cresswell's stunning opener, the scoring that day was done by Adam McGurk, a 21 year-old product of Aston Villa's youth system. They were two of the three goals he's scored for Tranmere but he's making the team so could pose another threat.

So what goes wrong for Tranmere at the back? Well to answer that, I'd have to look at Tranmere when the ball is actually in their own half. The last game of last season saw Swindon beat them 2:0 and yes there were some things to see. The first goal saw Ian Goodison beaten in the air from a corner and the knock down found a player in all sorts of space. There's no way such a corner should pay off against a big defence like Tranmere's. When things did go wrong at the back, there was a bit of "Rabbit in the headlights" syndrome with players standing and waiting to see what would happen. Theres was also nearly a real goalkeeping howler when he dwelled on the ball too long and hit it against the advancing Swindon striker. It fell nicely enough for the Swindon man, but fortunately, his howler proved slightly more embarrassing than the 'keepers.

But my overwhelming impression was how susceptable Tranmere looked against any sort of pace. Any quality balls for Swindon players to run on to were causing headaches. This weakness, with the quality with which Donny can pass the ball would normally make me think that Rovers will win this. But who knows what team will be put out by Sean in the current situation. And besides, regular readers know, I don't do predictions.

MATCH REPORT: BRIGHTON V DONCASTER

BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION				2		1		DONCASTER ROVERS
Buckley (83, 90+7)									Sharp (39)
16	C Ankergren							33	G Woods
3	G Greer							5	R Naylor
22	M Painter							3	G Friend
14	I Calderon							14	T Spurr
5	L Dunk							24	M Dumbuya
10	M Sparrow (Buckley 75)							16	J Oster
25	K Lua-Lua (Noone 46)							26	J Coppinnger (Hird 89)
18	G Dicker							18	S Gillett
26	L Bridcutt							13	R Mason (Bennett 75)
12	C Mackall-Smith							12	J Hayter
9	A Barnes							10	B Sharp ( G Barnes 55)
Subs								Subs
1	P Brezovan							1	N Sullivan
20	R Vindelot							21	S Hird
8	A Navarro							9	C Brown
30	W Buckley							17	G Barnes
11	C Noone							23	K Bennett

FUZZY STATS

	Off T	On T	Goal	Assist	Offside	Fouls Drawn	Fouls	Saves	Yellow	Red
Ankergren								2
Greer		1				1	1
Painter
Calderon						1
Dunk					1	1	1		1
Sparrow							1
Lua-Lua						3	1		1
Dicker		2				1	1
Bridcutt	1						2
Mackall-Smith	3	2			3	3
Barnes	3	1			2	2	1
Brezovan
Vindelot
Navarno
Buckley	2	2	2			1	1
Noone	2	2		1			2
	Off T	On T	Goals	Assist	Offside	Fouls Drawn	Fouls	Saves	Yellow	Red
Woods								9
Naylor	1					1	2		1
Friend						2	1
Spurr							2		1
Dumbuya							1
Oster	1	1				2	4		1
Coppinger						1	1
Gillett		2
Mason						1
Hayter	1					2
Sharp	1	2	1		1	1	1
Sullivan
Hird
Brown
Barnes						1	1
Bennett

FUZZY'S FUZZY VIEW

Well, for the first half at least it looked as though Rovers had managed stamp on all the party hats and pull the buzzy things out of those really annoying whizzy things you get at parties. Billy Sharp gave the South Yorkshireman a deserved lead at half time, but a Brighton side that were always improving plus some terrible luck meant that the "new stadium" party will continue into the East Sussex night after all.

For the first half hour, Rovers hardly let the Seagull's have a look in. Sharp was causing all sorts of problems and after 5 minutes was extremely unlucky to have been adjudged to have fouled Dunk when clean through on goal. By this time, Sharp had already given Ankergren a "sighter" and Mason had scuffed a good chance over the bar. Shortly after Sharp's chance was prevented by the ref, Oster received the first caution of the game with a trip on Mackall-Smith. The resulting free-kick was deflected wide by a fast charging Rovers' wall.

But Rovers were bossing it. Dumbuya made a great run down the right but his cross was intercepted before Sharp could pounce. The Rovers' hitman should then have had the visitors a goal up. Coppinger received the ball from Gillett and drove a cross which Sharp, uncharacteristically fired wide from 12 yards.

At the other end Spurr and Lua-Lua were starting an interesting contest. The new Rovers left back was late on the Congolesien and received a yellow for his trouble. Minutes later, the home fans were screaming for a red as Spurr put in another very robust tackle. I thought the ref got this right, on the second occasion, Spurr did get more of the ball, but the home fans were getting restless. Restlessness was turned more hostile when Lua-Lua went down in the area under the attention of Hayter. The referee decided that he had gone down a little too easily and showed him a yellow card. It was harsh on Lua-Lua but although the incident certainly didn't merit a yellow, nor was it a penalty.

It was all too much for Gus Poyet though. The Uruguayan obviously complained a little too vociferously to the 4th official. The referee was called over and Gus was to spend the rest of the match watching from the stands. With Doncaster dominating, things weren't looking good for the perfect stadium opening.

An awful challenge on Friend brought choruses of "You don't know what your doing" aimed at the referee. If they had seen the TV replay, they would have seen that Brighton had been lucky not to get their first card of the game.

Brighton were coming more into it now though. A ball fell for Ashley Barnes in the area. Woods blocked but Friend was still needed to make a timely clearance. Lua-Lua immediately afterwards put in a great cross for Mackall-Smith to head over. Naylor then picked up Rovers third yellow with a reckless lunge on Barnes that could easily have been more severely punished.

Mason, who was having a great game up to this point ran purposefully at the Brighton defence in the 39th minute. His shot was blocked but deflected for BILLY SHARP to volley. Ankergren nearly stopped it, but it trickled first against the post and then over the line. A deserved breakthrough for the visitors.

At the end of the half, carelessness on the edge of the area by Oster allowed Dicker through but he shot straight at Woods.

Half time and Lua-Lua was replaced by Noone, one of two substitutions by the Seagulls that would prove decisive. But the first decisive moment of the half came when Dunk slid into Sharp's heels. All Rovers fans know that Sharp stands up if he can. He didn't, and after a lengthy delay, he left on a stretcher to be replaced by Giles Barnes. Doncaster were never quite the same threat without their talismanic striker.

On 56 minutes, a real mix-up between Friend and Woods led to the Rovers 'keeper blasting the ball against Mackall-Smith. It could have gone anywhere but thankfully, it fell for Dumbuya to clear. Immediately afterwards, a flick-on from Barnes fell for Noone but he blazed probably the best chance of the game haplessly wide. It was now Rovers who couldn't keep hold of the ball while Brighton were looking more and more dangerous.

The substitution that changed the game came on 75 minutes with Will Buckley replacing Matty Sparrow. At the same time, Mason, who was staring to cramp, was exchanged for Kyle Bennett. In the 83rd minute, WILL BUCKLEY paid back the first installment of his million pound price-tag with a great drive from the edge of the area into Woods' bottom left corner. Brighton now had a win to push for.

Rovers withdrew a disappointing Coppinger for Sam Hird to shore things up but immediately afterwards wished they hadn't. A corner was played long to Naylor who headed back for Hayter to volley. The shot was deflected but of more concern was Hayter, obviously in pain after the effort. The stretcher was employed again to remove a second Rovers striker from the proceedings. Rovers were down to 10 men.

They couldn't hold on. Noone showed very clever feet 7 minutes into injury time and then played an inch-perfect pass to WILL BUCKLEY who's cool finish sealed the win.

Brighton deserved their victory but Rovers can take something from a great performance particularly in the first half. The injuries and having to finish up with 10 men showed us though, that perhaps we are not yet at peace with the football Gods.

FUZZY'S MATCH THREAD BRIGHTON v DONCASTER ROVERS

BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION

V

DONCASTER ROVERS

Discuss the match before, during and after on JA606

Who would have said 13 years ago that Brighton would be making their return to the second-flight of English football playing against Doncaster Rovers? We, of course played the last fixture at the Goldstone Ground back in April 1997 before the Seagulls' forced migration. Its a great fixture for believers as both clubs have had their share of trauma in those intervening years.

No, its not the last time we've played each other, but on Valentine's Day 1998, we met again at the Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham as the 91st and 92nd placed clubs in the football league.

While Donny were having that nightmare season that nearly saw us disappear from existence, Brighton fans were enjoying a 140-mile round trip to a stadium voted the crappiest football ground in the country in 2004.

That match was celebrated as Fans United II, an initiative to draw attention to the plight of football clubs being mis-managed (and my God, they could not have found two better advertisments for this cause on that day).

Anyway, our heartfelt thanks to Seagull's fans for publicizing the issue to the extent that Clubs in Crisis was formed in 2001 by their then Supporters Club Chairman, Tim Carder.

Looking at the site, its a shame that it hasn't been maintained since 2008 as I know that there are clubs out there with similar problems to the ones that we had. I guess its time for them to take the ball as for Brighton & Donny, for now, and hopefully forever, those days are consigned to history.

BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION

Well I think that picture is what the day is all about as we play the first league game at the Amex Community Stadium and bloody hell, does it look great or what? The last time Donny played a first match at a new stadium was...well...our own. And nobody pooped that party! Huddersfield Town were dispatched 3:0 on New Year's Day 2007.

"The achievement of building the stadium is so great because the battle was so hard. The place has got a history before we even play a game here." - Dick Knight, Brighton Chairman

So now that we've established Donny are good at inaugral games in new stadia, its an obvious away win then! Oh I wish, but I'd say that the euphoria going around Brighton at the moment makes this the toughest opening day in the Championship. Promotion as champions AND a new stadium. Donny need something to seriously piss Brighton off in the next few days, and lets face it, what could, the Seagulls have only sold the 17000 season tickets!

The first name I notice in Brighton's team is captain, Gordon Greer. Most Donny fans who know me will tell you that I like our manager, however, sometimes he does have even me scratching my head. Some players seem to hang around Donny and do not an awful lot while others do perform but have their bags packed and are on their way. Gordon comes in that second category. Yes, he had injury problems while he was a Rovers player but has since done very well for both Brighton and Swindon Town. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I know, but this is one who got away.

Looking at Brighton, what I liked was the way they played around the box. They have players very capable of holding the ball up and are comfortable enough to play a few passes while looking for the killer-balls. When they come, they can be extremely good, in particular when delivered in the air. Very precise so Rovers defenders will have to keep on their men.

Another player I'll give a shout for is last season's 20-goal leading scorer, Ashley Barnes. You don't get 20 in any league without being decent and in the three games I looked at, I saw three Barnes' finishes which, although not spectacular, made him look the good opportunist that he obviously is.

Unfortunately, in the games I saw (last three of last season) I couldn't say much positive about the defending. In the first match highlights I reviewed, I saw free-headers from corners; there seemed a lot of space between Brighton's defenders and pressurizing the ball-carrier payed off as possesion was lost and then the brains of the back 4 went walkabout.

In the next game, there was similar genorosity with space and another freebie-goal this time for Huddersfield Town in the last game played at the Withdean. Hang on a minute. Huddersfield beat Brighton in the last ever game at Withdean; Huddersfield get beaten by Donny in the first ever game at the Keepmoat. Am I feeling some kind of karmic connection here?

In any case, though I criticize the defending in the games I saw, it should be recognized that the league had already been won before these games were played and Brighton conceded only 40 in the league last season. Nah...I'm not fooled. They are better at the back than the clips that I saw indicate.

DONCASTER ROVERS

So here we are at the start of our fourth season in the Championship. Its also the third season of Fuzzy's match thread (did anyone really think I'd let the BBC kill it along with 606?) Do you know we're favourites for the drop? I wonder over the last 3 years, how much money the bookies have made on that one?

"Last Season I said that the squad wasn't strong enough,an we are not as strong as we were last season." - Rovers' Manager, Sean O'Driscoll,

In fairness, the tag is probably as justified this season as it was when we were promoted as play-off winners in 2008. Twenty-first place last season caused many Rovers fans to find out what shirt tails are for and from January our record was simply awful. True, there was an injury crisis that would strain most club's strength in depth; also true, injuries caused us to play the same defence for three games in a row just once last season. But Donny certainly were not the Arsenal of the North as the press had dubbed us the previous season and the warning signs were there very early on that the defence left much to be desired. Up front, though David Healy and Jason Euell certainly applied themselves to the cause, without Billy Sharp we looked blunt...and without Sharp and Hayter we were completely toothless.

So strengthening the squad was in order and that's just what has been done. Tommy Spurr (R) has been brought in at left back from Sheffield Wednesday with ex-Leeds captain, Richard Naylor bringing more experience to the back 4. Only today (4th August) the defence has been further strengthend with the addition of centre-backs Rachid Bouhenna, a stylish, 20 year-old Algerian and 18 year-old Oscar Radford who started his career with Hungarian giants Ferencvaros.

Kyle Bennett sounds like a very exciting addition to the midfield. Also in midfield Giles Barnes, formerly of Derby and WBA has signed a short-term contract.

For me, most important of all is the aquisition of Chris Brown from Preston. At last Rovers have another attacking option other than the Sharp/Hayter partnership. Don't get me wong, I like both of these players but they are both 5'9". Brown's 6'3" will surely provide Sharp with even more knock-ons than were provided by Hayter. And we all know how much Billy loved those.

And speaking of our Fat Lad from Sheffield, well he's still here, thats the main thing at the moment. He's also no longer incumbered by hernias and groin strains so hopefully back to his imperious best. This season must be his turn for a 20-goal season after being prevented only by injury from achieving the mark in the previous two seasons. I'm sure it will happen....unless the Premier League come a-knocking in the January transfer window.

Good luck to Billy if they do although I would advise any Premier League club that Sharpy will deliver more if he gets to do the pre-season with you so I'd suggest waiting until the summer.

Enjoy the match and the occasion everyone!