Matty D
11th August 2004, 09:23
Well, that was dull, wasn’t it?
It’s a good thing Doncaster’s defence was no better than ours otherwise we could be looking at 0 points from 2 rather than 3. When you’re gifted two goals in the first half away from home, the second on the stroke of half time, you really should win.
We started badly, too much of the hesitancy and long-balls of Chesterfield. Hard to tell how much distraction Nelson got from any mix-up with the defence for Doncaster’s early gift, but a) he needed to ensure there wasn’t any confusion and b) he got hands to the back-header and spilled it, in a situation where that’s unthinkable. Worrying.
It took us a while to get any sort of game going and when we did it was down to one man – Jay Tabb. Assist doesn’t really do justice to his contribution to Rankin’s goal – by that point I’d forgotten we had other players on the pitch, they seemed to touch the ball so rarely. The move started with Chris Hargreaves winning a tackle. Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Tabb burst through the defence from the left-wing (having swapped with Salako) and flighted it perfectly for Rankin to stoop and head home from head five yards.
The goal gave us a boost and Tabb started to turn the screw a bit, his shot from a tight angle being well tipped over, and Burton header missing the top corner by inches.
It really looked like we’d thrown our good work away when Nelson came bombing out to a Rovers player chasing a through ball, slanting away from goal if anything. Split-second decisions are always easier in hindsight, and his speed off his line has saved us in the past, but this situation probably required an arms-length ‘shepherding’ of the opponent over the dead-ball line at most. Instead Nelson flew across and upended him, and his miserable half ended with us behind again, this time from the spot.
Whatever MA said at half-time it seemed to do the trick and we attacked them with new self-belief early in the second half. Salako and Dobson seemed to have run out of room in the corner when the former found the space to hook over a cross which Burton did well to anticipate at the far post, winning the space to head down for Hargreaves to crash the ball home.
Within 2 minutes we were ahead, Burton getting a simple header to a corner, and the ball evading Rovers’ desperate attempts on the line. Now we actually started to play some football, and several more chances came our way – Rankin seeming to block a goal-bound effort on the line. In the end a fourth came as Rover’s keeper tried to make Nelson feel better about his evening’s work by taking his eye off a big hoof and cleaning his defender out, while Jay Tabb loitered to lob home the loose ball.
It could have been 5, Burton narrowly missing an easier header than the one he’d scored, but Rovers had been stringing some nice moves together throughout the match, and our back line had never looked totally comfortable, despite an improved performance from Fitz, and Frampton’s general steadiness.
MA rang the changes, O’Connor replacing Tabb and Somner taking over at left-back from Frampton who looked to be nursing a slight knock. You know what’s coming next don’t you…..
Maybe our concentration lapsed, maybe Rovers figured they’d better go all out and give it a go, but our clearances started falling short, we started settling for conceding throw-ins rather than clearing our lines, and the gaps in the centre of midfield opened up for them again. One failed clearance was deftly curled back into the top corner, and the remaining 7 minutes yawned out before us.
There was still time for one more bit of drama, Somner diving into a tackle (which he won) with studs showing, and the ref (who had clearly found it a difficult game, and been getting wound up by the constant shoving and arguing) deciding to exert some belated authority by waving a straight red. O’Connor must have been slightly (but only slightly) regretting hurdling an identical challenge in the opposite corner five minutes before. Still, he got out of the way of it, their bloke didn’t, so we’re the man down, rather than them. Anyway, we survived, and everyone went home having got their money’s worth…..
There’s still lots to address – Turner can improve our defence but as a unit it’s still showing its infancy; Nelson needs to put the jeers of those Chesterfield fans out of his mind, and quickly; we should have learnt from last night that playing the ball on the deck we can hurt anyone in this division, but playing a long-ball game we look toothless. It won’t always be enough to twig this once we’re behind.
Just like on Saturday, over the 90 minutes Doncaster looked like their players were more familiar with each other’s game, gave each other more options, and offered creativity from more positions. Hopefully once MA’s new plants are ‘bedded in’ we’ll look more settled and be able to play as a unit, in the way we did once we were 4-2 up, from the off. Fortunately in the meantime we’ve got Jay Tabb, and their defence crumbled once we managed to put any concerted pressure on it, but again, we can’t count on that always being the case.
What impresses me most about Tabb is the way that in a team in which he’s still a relative youngster he looks like he’s been playing the game for ten years more than his colleagues. He doesn’t panic, he doesn’t give the ball away, he spots what others are doing, and he makes the right decision, time after time. He’s the best right-winger we’ve got at the club, the best left-winger, the best central midfielder, and not far off the best striker. Anyone know a good cloning laboratory?
My ratings:
Nelson 3 – a night to forget
Dobbo 5 – still needs to work on his distribution
Frampton 7 – solid, tried to support the left-winger
Fitz 6 – generally OK, but let too many long balls bounce
Turner 7 – some good work, but still getting used to playing in this side
Talbot 6 – better than Saturday, but not back to his best yet
Hargreaves 6 – anonymous for most of the first half, came into the game once we got on top
Salako 7 – useful contribution, if overshadowed by:
Tabb 9 – MOTM by a country mile
Burton 8 – once we started passing, and crossing from somewhere near the byeline he looked very dangerous. Scored one and set up another
Rankin 7 – again, struggled early on, but enjoyed himself once the team got a bit of confidence
It’s a good thing Doncaster’s defence was no better than ours otherwise we could be looking at 0 points from 2 rather than 3. When you’re gifted two goals in the first half away from home, the second on the stroke of half time, you really should win.
We started badly, too much of the hesitancy and long-balls of Chesterfield. Hard to tell how much distraction Nelson got from any mix-up with the defence for Doncaster’s early gift, but a) he needed to ensure there wasn’t any confusion and b) he got hands to the back-header and spilled it, in a situation where that’s unthinkable. Worrying.
It took us a while to get any sort of game going and when we did it was down to one man – Jay Tabb. Assist doesn’t really do justice to his contribution to Rankin’s goal – by that point I’d forgotten we had other players on the pitch, they seemed to touch the ball so rarely. The move started with Chris Hargreaves winning a tackle. Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Tabb burst through the defence from the left-wing (having swapped with Salako) and flighted it perfectly for Rankin to stoop and head home from head five yards.
The goal gave us a boost and Tabb started to turn the screw a bit, his shot from a tight angle being well tipped over, and Burton header missing the top corner by inches.
It really looked like we’d thrown our good work away when Nelson came bombing out to a Rovers player chasing a through ball, slanting away from goal if anything. Split-second decisions are always easier in hindsight, and his speed off his line has saved us in the past, but this situation probably required an arms-length ‘shepherding’ of the opponent over the dead-ball line at most. Instead Nelson flew across and upended him, and his miserable half ended with us behind again, this time from the spot.
Whatever MA said at half-time it seemed to do the trick and we attacked them with new self-belief early in the second half. Salako and Dobson seemed to have run out of room in the corner when the former found the space to hook over a cross which Burton did well to anticipate at the far post, winning the space to head down for Hargreaves to crash the ball home.
Within 2 minutes we were ahead, Burton getting a simple header to a corner, and the ball evading Rovers’ desperate attempts on the line. Now we actually started to play some football, and several more chances came our way – Rankin seeming to block a goal-bound effort on the line. In the end a fourth came as Rover’s keeper tried to make Nelson feel better about his evening’s work by taking his eye off a big hoof and cleaning his defender out, while Jay Tabb loitered to lob home the loose ball.
It could have been 5, Burton narrowly missing an easier header than the one he’d scored, but Rovers had been stringing some nice moves together throughout the match, and our back line had never looked totally comfortable, despite an improved performance from Fitz, and Frampton’s general steadiness.
MA rang the changes, O’Connor replacing Tabb and Somner taking over at left-back from Frampton who looked to be nursing a slight knock. You know what’s coming next don’t you…..
Maybe our concentration lapsed, maybe Rovers figured they’d better go all out and give it a go, but our clearances started falling short, we started settling for conceding throw-ins rather than clearing our lines, and the gaps in the centre of midfield opened up for them again. One failed clearance was deftly curled back into the top corner, and the remaining 7 minutes yawned out before us.
There was still time for one more bit of drama, Somner diving into a tackle (which he won) with studs showing, and the ref (who had clearly found it a difficult game, and been getting wound up by the constant shoving and arguing) deciding to exert some belated authority by waving a straight red. O’Connor must have been slightly (but only slightly) regretting hurdling an identical challenge in the opposite corner five minutes before. Still, he got out of the way of it, their bloke didn’t, so we’re the man down, rather than them. Anyway, we survived, and everyone went home having got their money’s worth…..
There’s still lots to address – Turner can improve our defence but as a unit it’s still showing its infancy; Nelson needs to put the jeers of those Chesterfield fans out of his mind, and quickly; we should have learnt from last night that playing the ball on the deck we can hurt anyone in this division, but playing a long-ball game we look toothless. It won’t always be enough to twig this once we’re behind.
Just like on Saturday, over the 90 minutes Doncaster looked like their players were more familiar with each other’s game, gave each other more options, and offered creativity from more positions. Hopefully once MA’s new plants are ‘bedded in’ we’ll look more settled and be able to play as a unit, in the way we did once we were 4-2 up, from the off. Fortunately in the meantime we’ve got Jay Tabb, and their defence crumbled once we managed to put any concerted pressure on it, but again, we can’t count on that always being the case.
What impresses me most about Tabb is the way that in a team in which he’s still a relative youngster he looks like he’s been playing the game for ten years more than his colleagues. He doesn’t panic, he doesn’t give the ball away, he spots what others are doing, and he makes the right decision, time after time. He’s the best right-winger we’ve got at the club, the best left-winger, the best central midfielder, and not far off the best striker. Anyone know a good cloning laboratory?
My ratings:
Nelson 3 – a night to forget
Dobbo 5 – still needs to work on his distribution
Frampton 7 – solid, tried to support the left-winger
Fitz 6 – generally OK, but let too many long balls bounce
Turner 7 – some good work, but still getting used to playing in this side
Talbot 6 – better than Saturday, but not back to his best yet
Hargreaves 6 – anonymous for most of the first half, came into the game once we got on top
Salako 7 – useful contribution, if overshadowed by:
Tabb 9 – MOTM by a country mile
Burton 8 – once we started passing, and crossing from somewhere near the byeline he looked very dangerous. Scored one and set up another
Rankin 7 – again, struggled early on, but enjoyed himself once the team got a bit of confidence