Doncaster Rovers

Rovers - 1 (Butler 26’)
Oldham - 1 (Burn 34’)

Saturday 19th September, 2015
Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster
SkyBet League One.

Rob Jones took to the dugout as mananager of his first game on home soil and was looking to bounce back from last weeks defeat away at Walsall.

Following the sacking of Darren Kelly last weekend, David Dunn took charge of Oldham during the interim period.

Rovers took the lead initially before the visitors equalised and despite dominating the second half, a hard working Rovers side were anable to find the winner that they deserved.

It was a very quiet start from both teams, however the visitors dominated the opening quarter of an hour possession wise with Rovers struggling to get hold of the ball.

Rob Jones was forced into making an early substitution as striker Andy Williams was involved in a collision and had to leave the field with concussion. Dany N’Guessan came on to replace him and support Curtis Main up front.

It took over twenty minutes for the first chance of the game to fall and it was Rovers who should have taken the lead. With Aaron Taylor-Sinclair delivering a dangerous ball across the area, a deflection saw it fall to captain James Coppinger. With no option but to hit it on the volley from eight yards his sliced it over the cross bar.

Minutes later however, the home side did take the lead. Cameron Stewart’s free kick found Andy Butler at the back post whose looping header beat David Cornell to find the bottom corner.

It took just ten minutes for Oldham to draw level through a controversial goal from Jonathan Burn. Burn got on the end of an Oldham corner and heading towards goal Coppinger looked to clear the ball off the line brilliantly, however the linesman signalled that the ball had crossed and the visitors had equalised.

From then the game livened up and Rovers could have had two goals in seconds. Stewart almost opened his goal scoring account for the club when he hit a dipping free kick at goal from 30 yards. Heading for the top corner Cornell somehow got his fingers to it to tip it onto the cross bar. N’Guessan threw himself at the rebound but couldn’t convert.

The ball then fell to Oscar Gobern whose diving header cannoned back off the bar before bouncing down on the goal line. Everyone in the crowd thought it had crossed but play went on and scores remained level.

HALF TIME: Rovers 1-1 Oldham

Rovers continued to look strong after coming out for the second half and they played some neat football looking for the second goal. Stewart and N’Guessan continued to cause the Oldham defence problems and with twenty minutes to go N’Guessan was inches away from giving Rovers the lead.

Picking up the ball in midfield, he used his strength brilliantly to power past the defence before releasing a fierce shot on goal. Cornell again made a great save.

Going into the final 15 minutes Cedric Evina created a number of chances from the right and the defence continued to hack him down. Stewart delivered a number of good balls into the box, the first was met by the head of N’Guessan but again his effort was narrowly over the bar. This was followed by another Stewart corner, this time Butler headed at goal but again it just cleared the cross bar.

With five minutes added time, it was clear Rovers weren’t going to settle for a point and another corner from Stewart caused the Oldham defence problems. Butler’s powerful header towards goal looked to be stopped by the hands of Connor Brown, however nothing was given and Gary MacKenzies follow up shot was somehow cleared off the line.

It wasn’t to be and the referee blew for full time with the teams sharing the spoils.

FULL TIME: Rovers 1-1 Oldham


Team Lineups-
Rovers: Stuckmann, Coppinger (c), Butler MacKenzie, Taylor-Sinclair, Stewart, Gobern (Wellens 67’), Keegan, Evina, Main, Williams (N’Guessan 7’)

Unused Subs: Marosi, Middleton, Chaplow, Mandeville, P.McKay

Oldham: Cornell, Dieng, J.Wilson, Burn (B.Wilson 69’), Brown, Croft, Winchester, Jones, Yeates (Green 82’), Philliskirk, Poleon (Stankevicius 64’)


Unused Subs: Coleman, O'Connell, Eckersley, Bove.

Attendance:
5,647