Doncaster v Crewe Alex

[JJ1532]

Yey, back in action after our mini-break. Our first ever Saturday trip to the Keepmoat as well, should be fun.

As for the team, be interesting to see what Davis does. He'll probably stick with the 4-4-2, but that might not be a great idea away from home. Who knows. David Fox and Brad Inman are back, so they'll be in contention, Inman more than Fox. If Inman is good to go, he should come in for King, but because King scored in the last game, he'll get another 10 starts. Going to need another strong performance from the defence, hopefully Ajayi and Nugent can pick up where they left off against Oldham.

As for Donny, they have really picked up under Ferguson. Been on a great run of form over the last month and they'll probably feel confident about beating us to keep their good run going. Got a few tricky players in their side.

Our record at the Keepmoat is pretty abysmal and with Donnys form, I'm not feeling too confident. We could pinch a result, but our inconsistency could easily see us lose. I'd happily take a point, but think we'll get turned over. 3-1 Donny, Haber for us.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

It depends which Donny turns up, on Sunday we managed all of 11 minutes which produced 3 goals, the rest of the game we were very much second best. If we play like we did against Rochdale then we won't score either. We need to play at a high tempo for Fergies system to work, hopefully Mattioni and Tyson will be fit.

 

[TimeyWimey]

I won't accept Davis is turning it around unless we're safe by the beginning of April and I'm still not accepting our "improved form". We've beaten a Colchester side completely in a rut (and whose keeper is clearly no good at dealing with chips) and an Oldham side who hadn't been paid the day before.

We could get very soundly beaten here.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Yeah we'll lose this, I'll take a draw if we can get one.

 

[Hooped Wizard]

3-1 win.

 

[Wootball]

How in the fucking world did that just happen. Even for us that's diabolical.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Hahahahahahahahaha bet they all thought about what to have at Nando's when Saunders scored and forgot there was injury time to play, gutless bastards.

Fuck off Davis.

 

[TimeyWimey]

Ha ha. Get out Davis.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

39 wins in our last 138 games (dating back to New Years Day 2013). Wow.

 

[SRNP]

We may win a few games here an there. But this club is sinking without a doubt. Worst professional team in the country. Worst manager in the football league and no £££ (apparently).

 

[Hooped Wizard]

Yessss I knew we'd win and fuck off to all the shits who left early.

on to burton... just too easy this shit.

 

[Freakyteeth]

Crewe, always there to add the cherry on top to my weekends.

 

[JJ1532]

Look, I'm all for bashing the manager. I'm all for wallowing in self pity and getting depressed by all the things going wrong off the pitch. But those are not the things that are fair to moan about in the context of this game.

We started poorly, you could tell the management had been on to the defence and midfield about keeping possession. Lost the ball half a dozen times because we were faffing around in our own half. To be fair though, Donny didn't create anything of note until we scored. Really well worked goal, Colclough dribbles around a few Donny players, feeds in King who squares it to Haber for a tap in. Lovely goal even if it was out of nothing.

Tyson missed a sitter for Donny, but they got level eventually. Cross comes in, hits a Crewe player, loops up and Grant times his run to power in. Poor defending by the CBs, they didn't even react. We should have gone back ahead, Colclough and Lowe missed great chances one after the other. Donny had the better of the 1st half after that, needed a couple of good Garratt saves to keep them from going ahead. Was a poor first half.

But to be fair, we came out in the 2nd half and were much better. Donny only really had 1 good chance and that was from Tyson and Williams going for the same header and colliding with each other. We kept Donny at arms length and looked comfortable by our usual standards. Had a couple of half openings which we couldn't make the most of. Inman came on and gave us a bit more presence down the right hand side. Up until he point when Saunders scored, I felt 1-1 was a fair scoreline and both teams up till that point deserved a point.

But we went ahead, another really well worked goal. Colclough again starts it off, gets it to Inman, who feeds Turton, who squares it for Saunders to tap in. Think another player was also waiting to turn it in behind him. Really good football and an excellent goal.

As the goal goes in, the board was about to go up with 3 minutes of stoppage time. We scored, so the ref added a minute, which is fair enough. We looked relatively untroubled, but then a long ball goes in Ajayi's direction, he misses the initial header/clearance and in his desperation to make amends, he fouls one of their players about 25 yard from goal. It was a silly challenge that he didn't need to make. But that was probably his inexperience showing. The free kick was a cracking strike, not much Garratt could do about it. Ok, kick in the teeth, but stay solid, take the point. Ref probably added more time for the goal and a bit extra because we subbed off Colclough for Ng.

But another long ball goes up, defence doesn't deal with it, Williams gets it down, it given time to turn and bend it into the corner. Fucking sickener.

Davis was in no way to blame for today. In fact, his decisions almost helped us to win. He clearly said something that spurred on a better 2nd half showing, 2 of the subs he made contributed in the 2nd goal. We lost the game because CBs made silly errors late in the game. It was a freak occurrence that you can't legislate for as a manager. Yes, the club is in the shit. Yes, the manager is out of his depth and needs to go. But he wasn't to blame for today, not unless you put every defeat on him because he signed these players.

We were 3 minutes away from a perfect away performance. We performed well today against a tough, inform side and whilst I know fans will only accept results, today for me looked like an Alex team moving in the right direction. Will it last? Probably not. But lets hold off on the endless bashing, it won't achieve anything. We didn't deserve to lose today and we now have 3 games against bottom half teams and they are 3 teams we can all get results from. Anything less than 5-7 points isn't going to cut it after today. I'm disappointed and hurt, but there were signs of progress today.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Our biggest problem as a team is whenever we take a lead it's always a narrow one and we choose to sit back on it. I'm not a fan of taking off attacking players for defensive ones with injury time to go (some will disagree) because there's always the chance you can counter and either waste some time or put the game to bed. Under Davis, this side is incapable of putting games to bed hence we're low scoring and we're fragile at the back and this won't change. The fact Crewe haven't had a two goal lead since April is concerning, I just want to see this football club win a game convincingly, that's the only way we'll inject confidence into this team.

 

[dannyc5]

We were better than them. They never looked like scoring. We lost at football.

 

[TimeyWimey]

He's turning it round!

 

[Wootball]

Fuck all to do with Davis today.

 

[dannyc5]

I still have no idea how a team that created fuck all chances for 90 mins managed to score 3 goals

 

[Hooped Wizard]

We were the better team in the first round, you're widly exaggerating.

2-2 would have been the fair result.

 

[dannyc5]

You had more of the ball. What chances did you create though? Apart from Tyson's sitter, and your first goal (which took a huge deflection straight onto the goalscorers foot). We were the ones who created the chances. Classic away performance, until we crumbled at the end. That's why I am still so shocked by the last 2 minutes. We were so comfortable.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

First 20 mins I thought we could win by 5 if we decided to shoot rather than try to walk the ball in, after that Crewe grew into the game and looked dangerous every time they attacked. We seemed to run out of ideas and creativity from then on in. I honestly thought it would end 1-1 from 60 mins on as neither side looked capable and the weather was starting to make an impact. I doubt anybody could have predicted that last 5 mins or could blame a manager for the result.

 

[Football Purist]

Crewe, always there to add the cherry on top to my weekends.

I wouldn't be so smug if I were you.
Your club's in serious shit off the field.
Smurf...the clown that just keeps giving.

 

[valefan16]

I wouldn't be so smug if I were you.
Your club's in serious shit off the field.
Smurf...the clown that just keeps giving.

It isn't really though is it, Smurfs had a tantrum but isn't selling until the right man comes along.

Mental last few minutes I recall Northampton scoring in the 89th minute to go 2-1 up against us only got us to get 2 in injury time in 2003 was nuts. Sky's report suggested it was the least Doncaster deserved though?

 

[JJ1532]

Maybe try reading a bit further down the page, because they also put this:

"There were several near misses before the interval and little to chose between the sides in the second half until the barnstorming finish."

A draw would have been a fair result. Oh and I wouldn't put too much stock in that report, because they don't even know the difference the words choose and chose. Plus, they thought the 3rd came from a goal kick when it didn't. They are a bunch on inept fuckers who got their report from the associated press, so 2nd hand information at best.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

There is nothing worse in the football world than Sky's condescending coverage of the Football League.

Like they'd actually send a guy to Doncaster to cover Doncaster vs Crewe, far too small time for the elitist fuckers!

 

[Brammer_£500000]

I wouldn't be so smug if I were you.
Your club's in serious shit off the field.
Smurf...the clown that just keeps giving.

Yellow Teeth is over excited after the circus 'fisted' Scunny 1-1.