CIDERSPACE The Independent Yeovil Town FC Website
Season 2006-2007 : Doncaster Rovers vs Yeovil Town : Tuesday 27th February 2007
Coca Cola League One : Doncaster Rovers vs Yeovil Town

Vote for your YTFC Man of the Match by clicking here

Venue: Keemoat Stadium, Doncaster
Tuesday 27th February 2007, 7.45pm kick-off.

Conditions: Pre-match rain, swirling winds
Pitch: Excellent

Scorers: None.

Attendance: 8,046 (including approx 350 Yeovil supporters)

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire)
Assistants: David Richardson (Yorkshire) and Rob Steans (Leicestershire)
Fourth official: Nigel Smith (Derbyshire).

Bookings:
Yeovil: Nathan Jones (taking free kick too early, 64 mins)
Doncaster Rovers: None

Team Line-Ups

Yeovil Town : (4-4-2)
1. Steve Mildenhall
32. Matthew Rose 4. Terry Skiverton 6. Terrell Forbes 3. Nathan Jones
14. Jean-Paul Kalala
31. Nicholas Law 11. Chris Cohen
9. Arron Davies
29. Marcus Stewart 10. Wayne Gray

Subs: 2. Anthony Tonkin 8. Anthony Barry 12. Martin Brittain 15. Peter Sweeney (80 mins for Arron Davies) 25. Lee Morris (72 mins for Marcus Stewart)

Doncaster Rovers :
1. Neil Sullivan
2. James O'Connor 5. Graeme Lee 11. Adam Lockwood 18. Sean McDaid
20. Paul Green 19. Brian Stock 15. Mark Wilson 7. Lewis Guy
23. Jason Price 17. Jonathan Forte

Subs: 35. Barry Richardson (GK) 8. Sean Thornton (87 mins for Lewis Guy) 22. Jon-Paul Pittman 21. Sam Hird 27. Craig Nelthorpe (87 mins for Jonathan Forte)

Match Report

Manager Russell Slade made one enforced change to the side that had beaten Swansea City on Saturday with Scott Guyett dropping out of the sixteen with an ankle injury. However, he also chose to perform what is a slight pattern of rotation on his midfield players, with Peter Sweeney and Martin Brittain who had started in the Saturday game, swapping over with Nicky Law and Arron Davies. As such the midfield formation was also tweaked slightly with Jean-Paul Kalala being used as the holding midfielder, whilst Arron Davies was able to push forward - more or less that utilised at Bournemouth.

The game took a long long time to get any kind of real shape with neither side getting their foot on the ball for any great length of time. A few aimless crosses from both sides failed to find their targets. Yeovil's best early chance came when a Marcus Stewart pass found Chris Cohen but he seemed to get into a tangle with Doncaster full-back Sean McDaid and lost his footing entirely, knowing probably that he should have done a little better with his attempt. Wayne Gray was another player who seemed to have come out with his boots on the wrong way - worrying the corner flag more than home keeper Neil Sullivan with one attempt.

At the other end, Doncaster managed to get a couple more attempts on goal than the Glovers, although the visitors' cause was not being helped by a series of dreadful decisions by the linesman at that end. Twice the ball clearly ricocheted off home players only for corners to be awarded. Then on another occasion Jason Price outwitted Nathan Jones on the byline, stepping cleverly inside him and laying the ball back to Paul Green. The Doncaster midfielder's shot was mishit straight into the path of Price who was about as offside as offside can be, but the assistant's flag stayed down and it was just as well that Steve Mildenhall was able to block at his near post.

An absolutely outstanding doubleblock by Terry Skiverton and Nathan Jones prevented Lewis Guy from getting a direct attempt on goal inside the box midway through the half. Yeovil were defending deep, demonstrated when Wayne Gray of all people blocked another Doncaster attempt out for a corner. Then Steve Mildenhall produced the save of the game - brilliantly anticipating Graeme Lee's near post header from a corner that saw the keeper block the attempt at source by coming off his line and ensuring that the header barely travelled a yard before it was parried for yet another corner.

Overall though, Doncaster weren't finding it a lot easier to breach the Yeovil defence - the back four were holding firm and although it was clear which side was on top, they weren't seeing too many other opportunities to threaten a match heading towards the break with 0-0 written all over it and in the main both struggling from a creative point of view.

Half-time: Doncaster Rovers 0 - 0 Yeovil Town

If anything, the second half opened with even less goalmouth action with Doncaster finding increasingly that they would have to shoot from distance as even the few opportunities they got in the first half to get in behind the Yeovil defence were drying up. Aside from their few long-rangers, the first 20 minutes of the second period passed off without either side getting too much on goal.

The first moment of serious note of the second half was a booking. Referee Neil Swarbrick had not been the best of officials during the match - stopping the game far too frequently and giving almost every 50:50 decision in favour of the home side. His booking of Nathan Jones was fairly ridiculous - choosing to caution him for taking a free kick too early - heaven forbid that a player on the pitch might want to try and liven up the tempo of a match that was slightly lacking in entertainment value. Mr Swarbrick soon told Jones there would be none of that!

Nicky Law produced a rare chance for the Glovers, probably intending to chip keeper Neil Sullivan from the edge of the box. When that sort of attempt comes off, it looks sublime. When it is a couple of yards too high it doesn't look quite so sublime but at least he was trying to find the target in a half when few other players were managing it. An awesome body block by Nathan Jones on a Jason Price shot showed how well both sides were playing from a defensive point of view. That said, Mark Wilson did worm his way through midfield on one occasion - thankfully his shot was not as good as his mazey move, with the 50 yard run being completed by an attempt that went high and wide.

Lee Morris and Peter Sweeney were introduced for Marcus Stewart and Arron Davies in the final 20 minutes to try and liven things up a bit in the Glovers attack. Not that this achieved any great effect. Morris did manage to get into two useful positions but both came to nothing. The first rather summed up Yeovil's creative moves on the night, with Chris Cohen's superb pass into space absolutely tailormade for Morris to run onto - if only he hadn't picked that precise moment to make a move off the ball in entirely the opposite direction! Then Morris laid the ball back to Cohen on the edge of the box who got himself into space. Unfortunately the ball landed on the midfielder's right boot and the end result was the ball looping harmlessly over the bar.

The major surprise was that Doncaster left it until the 87th minute to try and change a match that was slipping away from producing any sort of a result. Whilst an away draw for the Glovers would be considered to be relatively positive in that it would see them pick up a point from one of their harder remaining fixtures, Doncaster need the points if they are to get themselves into a playoff spot, and it was unusual to note the lack of any serious moves by them to push men forward in the final minutes. If anything the match fizzled out with both sides apparently content to settle for a point, and inevitably that was what both sides got in the end.

An excellent defensive performance by the Glovers on the night. Nathan Jones and Terry Skiverton have already been mentioned for some superb defensive blocks to keep Doncaster away from goal, but the performance of Terrell Forbes shouldn't go unmentioned with a couple of his pacey runs to cut out balls behind the Glovers defence simply outstanding - not only for the way that he outpaced his marker, but also in the assured way he regained possession and then looked for a pass, rather than aiming for Row Z.

Sadly at the other end of the park, the Glovers were not on song at all. Far too many crosses went straight into the arms of keeper Neil Sullivan, and there weren't enough passes to the front pair to truly make you believe that Yeovil were likely to score. Once Doncaster's first half attempts had been snuffed out, the second half was that of two sides huffing and puffing without any real clinical penetration, and if there was ever a game where a 0-0 scoreline summed up what had been served up on the night, then this was it. Still, an away point at one of your promotion rivals is not to be sniffed at, and this may well turn out to be a point gained, rather than two lost, come the end of the season.

MOTM Vote Result:

Pos Player
1 Terrell Forbes
2 Jean-Paul Kamudimba Kalala
3 Nathan Jones

Overall match rating: 4.8 / 10
Performance: 5.0
Entertainment: 4.6

18 votes received.

Any comments/questions please email ytfc.motm@tiscali.co.uk

Full-time: Doncaster Rovers 0 - 0 Yeovil Town
Match reports are welcomed by Ciderspace for publication - they can be as long or short as you like, humourous or serious as you prefer; and we welcome more than one viewpoint - the more the merrier! Send them to us as soon as possible after the game to ytfcciderspace@yahoo.com, or simply post them to the Ciderspace Mailing-List and we will pick them up from there.

Back to Top of Page

contact ciderspace:ytfcciderspace@yahoo.com
© Ciderspace 2007
Last Updated : 28th February 2007
design by siteshape
Top