We were unlucky not to take a point from the game today. Some of the venomuous comments above are completely out of order: it is generally sensible to get the views of someone who actually attended the game before making pronouncements about it ??
There were very few chances for either side on a disgraceful pitch that made any attempt to play football impossible. That said, Doncaster did pass it better than us in the first half, which is probably understandable given their very high confidence levels and the fact they are used to the surface. They had the better of the play, but we defended very well and restricted them to mostly long range efforts. Ash was outstanding, and ABB looked lively when he did get on the ball, which was not often enough.
After the break, we actually showed the greater purpose and dominated for 15-20 minutes. Akpro had a good opportunity about ten minutes in which he should have done better with, lashing it wide when he should have gone across the keeper: this and a header from a Robbo free kick in the first half were probably the best two opportunities in the game other than their goal. Doncaster's goal came from virtually their first attack of the half, a set play with McCoombe (six foot five) knodding down for Jones (six foot seven) to put the ball home. It was the first and only time in the game the back four let their guard down.
After that we huffed and puffed, showed plenty of endeavour, but could not really trouble their back four. The quality and decision making in certain areas is poor at the moment because confidence is rock bottom, but I think the players really deserve credit for having a go today in almost impossible circumstances.
I came away feeling pleased with the effort the players put in: we really could not have given much more against a team that are in infinitely better form than us and are almost certain to be promoted. I don't think Doncaster did enough to deserve to win the game, and ultimately it was our inability to deal with two six foot plus galoots and our lack of confidence in attacking areas that has cost us. This performance was much better than the Sheff Utd one, we just sorely need to scrape a lucky one nil to get some kind of confidence back into the team.
Some seem to be questioning the decision to play Robbo in the hole, but this was a change I had called for and was sensible as it meant he saw plenty of the ball in the middle of the pitch and had a decent game.