2018/19 Prediction League; Game 44 v Doncaster Rovers (away)

Div3North · 22-04-2019, 00:30

Doncaster Rovers

V

Accrington Stanley

2018/19 Prediction League; Game 44 v Doncaster Rovers (away)

Tell you what; it’s a good thing we weren’t playing Donnie’s u8s, because they’ve just beaten Juventus to win a European Competition!

This week’s starter for 10; how many times have we had a player sent off in League games this season? And how many of those were GKs?.................. and for roundness of numbers, how many players have been sent off against us?

Doncaster’s main claim to fame as far as I’m concerned is that it’s a dump; there are some nice bits outside it in the country, but the town reminds me of Morecambe as described by Colin Crompton (“Thank you please, around the room”)

• “They don’t bury their dead in Morecambe, they just stand them up in bus shelters”

The Official version is; “Doncaster is a Yorkshire town, full of character with a wide range of experiences to offer visitors. With award winning attractions and 2000 years of History it is possible that there is something to suit your interest, so you can be sure of some great days out with time as your only limitation” (don’t you wonder who writes this drivel?) ................. “A wide range of attractions” by the way includes Charity Shops, Phone Shops and Betting Offices and not a lot else – and if I’d been writing that I don’t think I’d have said “it is possible that there is something to suit your interests”, because it’s equally possible that there isn’t!

Doncaster is believed to be located at the site of a Roman fort constructed in the 1st century at a crossing of the River Don; originally believed to be the place referred to in the 9th Century “History of Britain” as Cair Daun, Donnie’s name apparently comes from "Don-" (Old English: Donne) from the Roman settlement and river, and "-caster" (-ceaster) from an Old English adaptation of the Latin castra ("military camp; fort"). Fascinating or what?

They also suffered recurrences of the plague between 1562 and 1606, wiping out lots of the inhabitants .................. and it’s also the home town of former confectionary giants Parkinson's the inventors of Butterscotch, Nuttalls Mintoes and Murray Mints. In August 2011 Parkinson’s disposed of their trademark ................. second starter for ten; how did they arrange the disposal (it was acquired, if it helps you – and it doesn’t, or I wouldn’t be telling you – by “Confection by Design” of Harrogate)? And Harrogate are still in the playoff zone of the Bananarama; and lightning did strike twice for Salford Moneybags, if you saw; Paul Scholes charged by the FA for breach of the betting rules (140 times), and Nicky Butt arrested for an alleged assault; what happened to “fit and proper persons”? Paul Scholes, by the way, stands third in the all-time list of “The Most Booked PL Players” on 97 (behind Kevin Davies and Lee Bowyer); Nicky Butt is joint-seventh in the Most Red Cards Table on 6, one behind Alan Smith, Roy Keane and Vinnie Jones, and two back from Richard Dunne, Duncan Ferguson and Patrick Vieira ..................

Doncaster parted company with seven players during and after the Transfer Window, which is stacks more than most do; one was released, and six MutuallyConsented (they do loads of that in Donnie – trust me, I worked there for a while); Issam Ben Khemis, a Tunisian CMF; strikers Paul Taylor and James Morris; RBs Mitchell Lund and Niall Mason; CMF Jacob Fletcher; and RMF Morgan James; Morris, Fletcher and James had been out on loan before Christmas, which might have been An Omen (if you believe in them .............. mwahahahahaha!) ........... And no, I’ve never heard of any of them either ........... Loans In were Blades’ striker Tyler Smith, Swansea RB Aaron Lewis and Blackburn CB Paul Downing; loans out were about eleventy-billion (and I haven’t heard of them either!)

They’re clinging on hard to the final Play-Off place, are the Vikings (aka “Donnie”, “The Rovers” and “The Mighty Reds/Rovers”). Having Greasy Poled – yes, it’s now officially a verb – “to Greasy-Pole” - into the Bananarama in 1998, it took them until 2003 to get back into the League; since then they’ve yoyo’d up to the Championship, and back down to League Two (but each time – 2003/04 and 2016/17 – they only stayed in Tier 4 for the one season).

Last year they finished 15th with 56 points from 46 games; this season they’re still in the mix to go back up to the Championnat; at home it’s W12 D7 L2 GF42 GA19, and away it’s W7 D5 L10 GF29 GA35, giving them an overall P43 W19 D12 L12 GF71 GA54 for 69 points – 10 points behind fifth-placed Charlton, and four points ahead of the Posh, whose GD is worse – plus 17 plays plus 9 – but who have a game in hand. That game in hand, though, is a road trip to Pompey on Tuesday 30th ........... and Pompey’s game this Saturday is a road trip to the BlackMoggies; gosh, it’s tough at the top ...................... but it’s tougher at the bottom!

They made Round Five of the FA Cup, putting out among others PNE and Chorley (who beat Stockport 2-0, by the way, but it was at Victory Park and not Edgeley Park) 7-0, before going down to Palace; in the EFL Cup they won 2-1 at Scunnie and then lost 2-1 at home to Blackpool, and in the Troffy they failed to get out of the group, losing 3-1 to the Toon u12s and 4-2 at Notts County – who are still bottom of League Two (and in real terms it’s two from them, Yeovil and Macc, since Cambridge have a seven point advantage over Macc and nine over the other two, and they all have three to play – which could make Macc v Cambridge on Doomsday (May 4th) an interesting proposition) .................. overall the Vs have scored 95 (71 in the League and 24 in 11 cup games); leading scorer once again is John Marquis, following up last season’s 14 in the League (15 overall) with 19 League (23) this season – and second on the list is Mallik Wilks, with 15 in the League and 17 overall; Alfie May has 11, and James Coppinger - a name you’ll likely know – has 4 ................. And Oh! To have scored 95 goals in a season! We’ve got 43 in 43 League games, plus 18 in 10 cup games (in which we conceded 19!)

Deadline for entries is, as always, scheduled kick-off time, which is 7.45 pm on Tuesday 23rd April ............... Donnie’s run of four wins in a row ended at Sunderland on Friday with a 2-0 loss ............... but before those four-in-a-row they’d actually failed to win in 7 (4 draws and three defeats, although those were all on the road); in fact the only sides to win at the Keepmoat (I still think of them as playing at Belle Vue) so far this season (!) have been Fleetwood (4-0) and Sunderland (1-0), and they both did the double over The Dons ................ but they’ll be looking over their shoulder at the Posh, so they might forget about us – but I suggest we man-mark Messrs Marquis and Wilks (sound like “Marmalade Manufacturers to HM the Queen”), and play six forwards as well ...................

And we’ve had five red cards in the League (Barlaser was red-carded in the FA Cup); Connor Ripley at Shrewsbury (we were 0-0 when he went, and ultimately lost 1-0); Zanzala at Bratfud (1-0 down, lost 3-0); Maxted at Charlton (yes I do know it was rescinded, but the question was ‘how many players have we had sent off’, not how many ‘correctly’ sent off) – 0-0, lost 1-0; Evtimov against Blackpool (1-2, lost 1-2); and Evtimov again against the Louts (0-0. lost 0-3) ............ so five red cards, four of them to GKs, and all five games ending in defeat, where we’d been level in three when the card was brandished! And for the purists, our opponents have had 3 reds ............... and Parkinson’s put their trademark up for sale on ebay, apparently, after holding it for 190 years! Shocking! But not as shocking as relegation, having once been fourth!

Good luck to everyone! ................ Keep the Faith! ......... And thanks for playing!