Scunthorpe United v Doncaster

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Football League One

Scunthorpe United :
Evans, Hinds, Crosby, Foster, Rose, Taylor (Sparrow 80), MacKenzie (Goodwin 45), Baraclough, Beagrie, Sharp (Torpey 80(sent off 90)), Keogh
Subs not used:
Musselwhite, Byrne

Doncaster :
Blayney, Fenton, Albrighton, Lee, McDaid, Mulligan (Coppinger 61(sent off 90)), Green, Thornton, McIndoe, Heffernan, McCormack (Guy 82)
Subs not used:
Fortune-West, Nielsen, Griffith

SULSESC REPORT

by Neil Wright at Glanford Park

WITH a scheduled 12 noon kick-off, it meant an early start for those of us travelling up from the south east.

The chairman and I left Harlow at 8 am and somehow managed to be in The Lawyer, enjoying a pint, by 10.15 am. No traffic on the roads, can we kick off this early every Saturday!

Local derbies are never enjoyable and this was one United could have done without, certainly on current form.

One win in the previous eight outings was not the kind of form you want to have going into a game of this magnitude. With new signing and ex-Donny skipper Steve Foster lining up against his former team-mates, the cries of "where's your skipper gone..." ringing out from the Donny Road end were predictable to say the least.

The first-half was pretty much end to end but both sides went in at the break even. On 48 minutes, half-time substitute Jim Goodwin, on for Neil MacKenzie, got on the end of a Michael Rose cross and the stalemate was broken.

Now the one thing United have failed to do in recent weeks is hold on to a lead. Sadly, the lead lasted only 15 minutes when a long free kick from Blayney, the Rovers 'keeper, drifted into the United box and Michael McIndoe was able to get up to knock the ball down to Evans' right.

Why is it that the United defence go missing at crucial parts of the game?

The final 20 minutes were as frenetic as the opening 45.

On 80 minutes, the inevitable substitution came when Sharp was sacrificed for in-favour Torpey. Sadly, it was Rovers who found the net for a second time. On 89 minutes Graham Lee had a speculative chip from the edge of the box which looped over Evans and nestled in the back of the United goal.

Cruel, cruel fate in a game that was nip and tuck and could have gone either way.

With seconds left on the clock, a reckless James Coppinger challenge on Ian Baraclough resulted in him being shown a straight red - and for no apparent reason, Torpey decided to push the outgoing Coppinger and he himself was shown a straight red for violent conduct.

So the final whistle blew and United had to suffer yet another home defeat, harder to take this time though as it was local rivals Doncaster who secured all three points.

If we're going to turn the corner soon, then we had better hurry up, as we're running out of games and relegation looms. Oh, how those heady early season performances are nothing now but a distant memory.

The only consolation from the afternoon was that the chairman and I were back home in Essex by 5 pm!