DONCASTER ROVERS 0 YEOVIL TOWN 1

Rovers went into this game with the call from Rovers boss Dave Penney to produce an improved performance after producing their worst showing of the season in the last match against Darlington. Whilst Rovers and Yeovil are old adversaries in recent years, this was the first time they had met since both had achieved promotion at the end of last season.

Penney again shuffled his pack, recalling Leo Fortune-West in place of Paul Barnes, bringing Tierney off the bench to replace Paterson, and giving Jamie Price his first game of the season at right back after he had returned from a loan spell at Halifax Town at the weekend.

Yeovil got proceedings underway in the first half defending the Town End, but it was Rovers who got the first attack in just short of a minute into the game, when Fortune-West couldn’t quite get a meaningful contact on a ball in from the right, and the ball went wide of the right post for a goal kick. Rovers also grabbed the first corner of the match in the third minute following a long throw by McIndoe, with Blundell almost getting hold of the clearance to shoot, but Yeovil managed to scramble the ball clear. Yeovil hit back a minute later to force their first corner – taken poorly and was well short of the near post and comfortably cleared by Price.

The 11th minute found a good bit of interplay between Green and Tierney, with Fortune-West receiving the ball on the edge of the area, the ball played back to Doolan, whose drive from outside the area was blocked by the visitors. The next chance also fell to Rovers, with McIndoe heading a cross from Price over the bar in the 14th minute. The first decent chance for Yeovil came their way in the 17th minute, with Kevin Gall volleying his 25-yard shot marginally over the bar with Warrington diving full stretch in an attempt to save it. The visitors were now starting to come back more into the game, although the Rovers defence still were managing to keep them at distance. Crittenden’s shot in the 21st minute was comfortably caught by Warrington, with the same player lobbing the ball over Warrington and the bar from the left touch-line. A good cross in from Blundell in the 25th minute was met by Fortune-West, whose header towards the top left corner of the net was well palmed over the bar.

An attempted clearance by Warrington in the next move cannoned into a Yeovil striker, with the ball going right across the face of the goal for a goal kick. Rovers were still managing to attack the Yeovil goal, with a delightful through ball finding Blundell on the left side of the penalty area, with his goal-bound shot being deflected out for a corner on the far side.

Rovers went a goal behind in the 35th minute in slightly unfortunate circumstances with a ball coming in from the left wing along the edge of the penalty area, with Rovers defenders all having the chance to clear the ball. The ball worked its way across to Yeovil’s right wing, and with Ryan completely missing his kick, Gavin Williams was left unmarked to fire a low shot across Warrington and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal. Rovers tried to get back on level terms quickly, forcing two corners in the next two minutes, but they were often undone by a somewhat unsympathetic interpretation of the off-side rule by the match officials. They failed to break through the Yeovil back line for the remainder of the half, and went in 1-0 down.

Rovers kicked off in the second half attacking the Rossington End, but despite some possession, the lack of influence on the game by the Rovers midfield meant that the ball was often lofted high from defence towards the strikers. Yeovil had the first shot of the second half when Lee Johnson fired across the goal from the right, but the ball went the wrong side of the post and out for a goal kick. Francis Tierney made way for Jamie Paterson in the 63rd minute, which momentarily seemed to rejuvenate Rovers, with McIndoe’s cross in the 65th minute being just fractionally too high for both Fortune-West and Blundell – the ball going out for a goal kick. Fortune-West had a shot from the edge of the penalty area go wide of the right post a minute later. Moments after Green had fired a right-foot volley over the bar from the penalty spot, Barnes replaced Blundell as Dave Penney tried to find a way of regaining the initiative from Yeovil. Warrington had to be alert in the 70th minute to tip a shot from Williams around the post.

Worse came for Rovers in the 78th minute when Leo Fortune-West was shown a straight red card for striking an opponent with his elbow in an off-the-ball incident. A goal down and a man short was to prove too much for Rovers to overcome, with most of the chances in the remainder of the game falling to Yeovil, with Johnson and Gall having reasonable chances to increase their lead.

A disappointing performance by Rovers, with the midfield being very ineffective, although hard-working. The use of two wingers put much onto the shoulders of Doolan and Green, who did not appear to link up very well to combat the sizeable influence of their Yeovil counterparts.