Unbeaten Away Run Ends At Donny

Goals from Hakeeb Adelakun and substitute Tommy Rowe saw Doncaster Rovers defeat Crewe Alexandra at the Doncaster Community Stadium yesterday.

Manager Lee Bell made 3 changes from last Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat against Morecambe with Tom Booth, Ryan Cooney and Aaron Rowe coming in for Harvey Davies, Lewis Billington and Matus Holicek, who all dropped down to the bench. Former Alex loanee Jamie Sterry started for Rovers while Billy Waters was amongst their substitutes.

The game’s opening chance came in the 12th minute as Luke Molyneux’s effort was saved by Booth before the hosts took the lead 4 minutes later as Adelakun scored directly from an inswinging corner off the inside of the post. Huddersfield Town loanee Josh Austerfield would have a shot blocked on 37 minutes as Donny would lose both full-backs to injury in the opening period.

The lead would be doubled on 58 minutes as a cross from Molyneux was turned goalwards with Rowe scoring from close range before Austerfield’s through-ball found full-back Rio Adebisi who had his shot saved by Timothee Lo-Tutala in the hosts’ goal.

The next couple of games see the Alex hosting Sutton United on Tuesday before travelling to MK Dons next Saturday.

Final Thoughts:

This was another performance that was lacking the quality that we have seen in recent away games, especially when it comes to creating chances in front of goal.

We need to get back to having a settled formation in a run of games (whether that’s the 4-2-3-1 we’ve gone with recently or the 5-3-2 that we had earlier in the season), preferably with the same core of players starting in most games.