With James Keane not travelling due to a bug, Rodrigues out of favour, and Fletch not yet up to a full 90 minutes, it was left to poor James Hayter to plough a lone furrow once more up front. Strangely Foley and O’Connor lined up on the opposite wings to usual with O’Connor on the left and Foley (who looks shorter every week) on the right. I’m sure that this was a cunning plan of Sean’s but it was one that escaped me and everybody else I talked to.
The idea of five in midfield was obviously to pack the centre of the park and deny Rovers space but it clearly didn’t work. After only a couple of minutes Gareth Stewart was forced into the first of many good saves from McDaid.
In a rare Cherries sortie into the Doncaster half Hayter was denied by a good tackle while advancing on goal but soon the relentless Donny pressure was to resume. 15 minutes in and they were awarded a penalty. From the away terrace at the far end (how nice it is to be able to stand at games) it was difficult to see why it was given but it was apparently for a foul by Neil Young. Gareth Stewart was booked for dissent and from SOD’s remarks after the game he wasn’t too happy with the decision either. Stewart came to the rescue though with a fine save from McIndoe and, unlike the last time the keeper saved from a spot kick, the Cherries defence were the first to react and clear the danger.
The save seemed to briefly lift the Cherries and their best chance came when Hayter narrowly failed to connect with a Stock free kick. Normal service was soon resumed though and Stewart made another good save from Heffernan.
What seemed like the inevitable happened with 5 minutes of the half remaining. Heffernan picked up the ball wide on the half way line and advanced past about four flimsy challenges before confidently slotting home from the edge of the box.
HT: 1-0
The second half resumed where the first had finished and Stewart was soon in the action again, pushing a long range effort around the post.
With an hour gone Fletch was released into the fray but before he could have any impact the ref had given Doncaster another penalty, this time for what looked like an innocuous, if foolish, shove by Browning from a corner. Although Gareth again went the right way this time McIndoe’s shot evaded him and Rovers went two up.
A couple of minutes later and it went from bad to worse. McIndoe took a shot from a narrow angle on the left, Stewart pushed the ball out with a fine one-handed save only for Ravenhill to blast the ball into the roof of the net.
Immediately from the restart (and while I was still arguing with The Bloke Behind Me about O’Driscoll’s tactics!) Browning put Surman through on the edge of the box and the Southampton loanee got the Cherries on the scoresheet.
With a quarter of an hour to go Sean finally seemed to realise that the way to score goals is to have a few forwards on the pitch and brought Dani Rodrigues on in place of Browning, to go 3 up front. Dani’s impact was almost instant when he was first to react to a terrible drop by Rovers keeper Budtz and make it 3-2.
Cherries scented an undeserved point and piled forward for the equaliser but the gaps at the back led to the final killer blow when Doncaster sub Green broke clear and curled a fine shot past Stewart from the edge of the box with 5 minutes to go.
There was still time for the referee to award his 3rd dubious penalty of the afternoon (I’m not sure what for) but the normally reliable Hayter fired wide past the left hand post. I’m sure his concentration wasn’t helped by some appallingly unsporting behaviour from the occupants of one of the prefab beach huts behind the goal that pass for executive boxes at Belle Vue, in continually flashing the lights on and off.
To be frank 4-2 flattered the Cherries and, but for Stewart, we could have been looking at one of our worst defeats for a long time.
Stewart – a string of good saves (including the penalty) which kept it from being a complete rout. AFCB: Stewart, Cooper, Hart, Young, Surman, O'Connor, Browning, Foley, Stock, Cooke, Hayter
Subs: Moss, Howe, Fletcher (on for Cooke, 59), Purches (on for Foley, 88), Rodrigues (on for Browning, 72)
Clive Loader, Wimbledon