Finnie Not Funny at Doncaster
Morecambe crossed the Pennines into deepest, darkest Yarksheer today to visit the Keepmoat Stadium. Their hosts, Doncaster Rovers, have endured a really poor start to the season and had a measly single point to show for their six league games before today’s contest. This in itself makes you wonder how much they are missing the talismanic James Coppinger: a tremendous footballer who finally retired after a virtual lifetime at the club at the end of last season. However, I’m sure that anyone who saw the way current Doncaster Manager Richie Wellens encouraged his Salford players to employ every trick in the Book Of Dark Football Arts at home against Morecambe last season will see this as just deserts for his cynicism and negativity. (A thought: Is this Karma?…)
It will be no surprise to anybody that he claimed `we wuz robbed’ after Wigan came from behind to beat them 2-1 last Saturday – he claims that Athletic’s equaliser came from a free-kick which shouldn’t have been awarded. In such a way, no blame could be accrued to his own defence for failing to deal with it properly or himself – naturally – for setting them up to play in the negative, neo-brutal, time-wasting way that his teams inevitably do.
Whatever, Mr Wellens had led Donny to the bottom of League One prior to the match. He and his troops would thus be desperate for a win this afternoon. The two clubs have only met twice before. Five years ago, Rovers battered the Shrimps 1-5 at what was then the Globe Arena but then drew 1-1 with them in the reverse fixture in League Two. Comparatively, though, Morecambe have a brilliant record so far in the league: two games won and one drawn in their opening six fixtures to put them into eighteenth place in the table.
Do we care what the Doncaster Manager said before the game? Not really. For the record, though – having made even more excuses for his team’s dismal record so far such as injuries, unlucky breaks and poor refereeing decisions – he said:
“No excuses anymore. The message this week is to go for it. Be expressive, get forward, get numbers in the box. Pass forward, run forward, if you’ve got the opportunity then drive forward. Training has been really, really good. We’re going full throttle at the weekend.”
For his part, Morecambe Manager Stephen Robinson saw the task facing himself and his men in these terms prior to the match:
“I watched their game against Wigan, they were unfortunate with a goal disallowed, they played well, they’ve changed systems quite a lot. I watched their game against Portsmouth where I thought they were very good. Sometimes you don’t get things go your own way, I think maybe the league table’s not telling their true position at the moment, so we certainly won’t go and underestimate them.”
The weather had been almost tropical in south Yorkshire earlier on but as kick-off time approached, the sky started to cloud over and the temperature noticeably dropped as the match progressed only for the sun to re-emerge later in the game.
Morecambe started on the front foot and won the first corner of the game within two minutes. The ball was headed-on towards Anthony O’Connor but the Shrimps’ Skipper couldn’t quite make contact with it. Doncaster forced the first save of the match through Kyle Knoyle after five minutes though but the resulting corner was completely wasted as it was put straight into touch. The home team probably just about edged the opening quarter of an hour or so and seemed to be concentrating their efforts mostly on the Morecambe right. Having said that, neither team were playing particularly well and Doncaster looked woefully low of confidence. Seventeen minutes had been played when Joe Dodoo’s shot had the sting taken out of it by a block and visiting goalkeeper Jökull Andrésson gathered it easily enough. With twenty-two minutes on the clock, a shot by Jordy Hiwula was deflected for another corner which was fairly easily cleared. Cole Stockton showed his undoubted class when he outsmarted the double defenders he was facing and put in a perfect cross right across the Donny area after twenty-five minutes. Sadly for the Shrimps, nobody was there to connect with it. With just over half an hour played, Morecambe missed the best chance of the contest so far. Cole the Goal was instrumental again before Wes McDonald was played-in to have a clear run on goal. For the hosts, Pontus Dahlberg pulled an excellent save out of the bag but the Wes should not have given him the chance to do so. The home goalie was called into action again after 34 minutes but managed to field a cross by Greg Leigh from the visitors’ left without too much trouble. Better approach play by Morecambe then led to another really good save by Dahlberg from Shane McLaughlin’s low goal-bound shot a few minutes later. Stockton got his head to the ball from the resultant corner but headed it over the bar. There was a moment of real controversy after 42 minutes when Leigh was clearly fouled by the home goalkeeper as he had rounded him after a bit of a melee in the Donny penalty area and was about to score. Dahlberg clearly pulled him back with a rugby tackle and it is a mystery as to why neither Referee Will Finnie nor his assistants awarded a penalty. This was the main talking-point of the game so far. On another day, Donny would have been facing a second half potentially a goal and certainly a man down. But not today…
Donny started the second period at a higher pace and started putting concerted pressure on their visitors for the first time in the game. As the home crowd – silent throughout the first period – finally found their voices, they forced a corner after five minutes of the restart. From this, Ro-Shaun Williams almost scored his first goal for Rovers as his header beat Andrésson only to be cleared off the line by Ryan Cooney. Stephen Robinson sent Adam Phillips on after an hour and virtually the first contribution the Burnley loanee made was to block Cole’s fine shot after 65 minutes. Phillips was actually off-side when this happened and ruined a decent chance after the visiting centre-forward had been fed by McDonald. A minute later, the outstanding Tom Anderson managed to block another shot from Arthur Gnahoua away for another corner, which the home Skipper then duly headed away to safety. At the other end, huge Watford loanee Tiago Cukur came on for Rovers with twenty minutes left. He immediately played-in Matt Smith for a shot which went just wide. There was really good interplay between Toumani Diagouraga, Phillips and Cole after about sixty-seven minutes but the move finally broke down without any end product.
Then it all went pear-shaped for the Shrimps. Tommy Rowe scored what was only their third goal of the season after eighty minutes – and once again, it came from a set-piece. Phillips needlessly gave away a corner after 81 minutes; an unmarked Rowe went up for it and the ball seemed to bounce off his shoulder and loop into the top corner of the net to give Andrésson no chance at all. One of our home-grown idiots then threw a flare onto the pitch. Why? – Why?
Centre-Half Scott Wootten booted the ball over the bar in injury time and Cole Stockton forced an excellent save from the home custodian right at the death. But that was as close as the visitors came to equalising once Rovers took the lead.
Overall, this was a poor performance by the team from Lancashire. Their habit of conceding from set-pieces needs to be urgently addressed by the Manager and his coaches. Doncaster are a poor team and – despite the good luck of not having seen their goalkeeper sent-off at the end of the first half – were there for the taking. To beat leaders Sheffield Wednesday one week and then lose to bottom club Doncaster must be worrying for Stephen Robinson and his staff. Donny’s first win of the season sees them still anchored to the bottom of League One. Faltering Morecambe also stayed where they were before the game – eighteenth – but are now only two points above the drop zone.
Doncaster Rovers: 12 Pontus Dahlberg; 2 Kyle Knoyle; 4 Tom Anderson (C); 6 Ro-Shaun Williams; 8 Ben Close; 10 Tommy Rowe; 14 Matt Smith; 17 Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila (21 Tiago Cukur 68’); 20 Joe Dodoo; 22 Ethan Galbraith; 25 Rodrigo Vilca (19 Charlie Seaman 79’).
Subs Not Used: 1 Louis Jones; 5 Joe Olowu; 15 John Bostock; 16 Aidan Barlow; 23 Dan Gardner.
Morecambe: 20 Jökull Andrésson; 21 Ryan Cooney; 7 Wes McDonald (11 Josh McPake 78’); 4 Anthony O’Connor (C); 3 Greg Leigh (22 Liam Gibson 70’); 19 Shane McLaughlin; 8 Toumani Diagouraga; 24 Arthur Gnahoua; 9 Cole Stockton; 31 Scott Wootten; 25 Alfie McCalmont (18 Adam Phillips 57’).
Subs Not Used: 1 Kyle Letheren; 15 Ryan Delaney; 10 Aaron Wildig; 6 Callum Jones.
Ref: Will Finnie.
Att: 5,651 (402 from Morecambe)
