Rovers recorded their 23rd league defeat of the 2022-23 season when they lost to Walsall at the Bescot Stadium. Rovers fielded a strange-looking side with several changes from the previous game against Colchester United, and also named only five substitutes.
Continue reading “Walsall 2-1 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report”
Walsall is known as ‘the town of a hundred trades’. Initially adopted as a tongue-in-cheek reference to nearby Birmingham’s moniker as ‘the town of a thousand trades’, it is now – in the wake of continued government cutbacks and austerity – a sadly accurate reflection of the town’s employment figures. That said, it should however not be confused with ‘the land of a thousand dances’, which is of course, Wolverhampton. Continue reading “Go Away! Walsall”
This match represented everything that has been wrong with Rovers over the last two years.
Continue reading “Doncaster Rovers 0-2 Walsall: 250 word match report”
Last time Rovers played Walsall this early in the season, we witnessed a convincing 3-0 victory featuring a David Cotterill wonder goal. This Carabao Cup performance at the Banks Stadium was not quite the same.
Continue reading “Walsall 0-0 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report”
When Rovers last beat Walsall the UK had a Coalition Government and The Bourne Legacy was showing in cinemas. So when Morgan Ferrier latched onto Andy Butler’s misplaced header to nod past Marko Marosi after 17 minutes there was a sense of ‘here we go again’ amongst the travelling Rovers fans. Continue reading “Walsall 1-4 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report”
Good news: Rovers managed to get through a match without conceding from a set piece. Bad news: they produced a performance so abject that they managed to make an average League One side look like Champions League material. Continue reading “Walsall 4-2 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report”
Typical. You spend time crafting a reasoned, balanced fanzine editorial on how managers need time and things aren’t really that bad, then on the day it gets read your team forgets what football is. Continue reading “Doncaster Rovers 0-3 Walsall: 250 word match report”
Another inevitable home defeat – we even debate in the pub before the match how many we’ll lose by at the Keepmoat. But this one had some redeeming features, most of which concerned our opponents. Continue reading “Doncaster Rovers 1-2 Walsall: 250 word match report”
Rob Jones named a strong attacking line up for his first game in charge with new signing Oscar Gobern partnering Richard Chaplow in midfield. Continue reading “Walsall 2-0 Doncaster Rovers: 250 word match report”
Sometimes 250 words is more than you could ever need. Rovers offered the square root of nothing as they failed to get a foothold of any kind in this game whilst a Walsall side – uninspiring but effective – took control without having to break sweat.
The first half passed with all the excitement and event of a tax self-assessment – forty-five minutes without a shot on any sort of target. Luke McCullough manfully stifled Tom Bradshaw, Rovers failed to support the hard-working but isolated Theo Robinson.
But then in injury-time came the breakthrough, a neatly worked free-kick caught Rovers napping and James Baxendale skipped in to drive a shot past Marko Marosi. The Slovakian keeper, on for the injured Jed Steer would do little but fetch the ball from his net all afternoon.
Second-half, and despite a couple of tactical shifts from Paul Dickov, anything approaching conducive threatening play evaded Rovers whilst Walsall took advantage of the gaps left by absent full-backs; Sawyer getting his second assist of the game to find the unmarked Bradshaw for 2-0.
A free-kick in off the post made it 3-0 and the game was over. Alex Peterson went on to run around in the vague vicinity of Robinson, but nothing changed. The quality and promise of Fulham evaporating into the exhaust fumes of the adjacent M6 traffic with every passing minute.
by Glen Wilson
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