Doncaster Rovers 3 v Bury 3 - EFL League 1

Tuesday 17th April 2018

SkyBet EFL Division 1

at the Keepmoat Stadium

Doncaster Rovers (2) 3

Andy Butler 2, John Marquis 35, Andy Boyle 65

Bury FC (1) 3

Niall Mason 38 OG, Jay O'Shea 51 pen, George Miller 60

Admission: £21

Programme: £2 

A 20 page insert inside a programme dated March 3rd (original fixture postponed).

Attendance: 7,131

In the build up to the game, Darren Ferguson had said finishing in the top half of League 1 this term would constitute a successful season and a springboard for a tilt at the the play offs next season with the right kind of funding. Though he stopped just short of saying... "and that's a massive boody hint!"
'Donny' went into this game tucked comfortably into mid table, light years away mathematically from the teams struggling to avoid the drop at the foot of the table, and those vying for a play off place at the business end of League 1.
While Bury, followed to South Yorkshire by a hardy band of 105 hardcore supporters, had already confirmed their relegation to League 2 on Saturday afternoon, when they lost 2-3 at home to fellow strugglers Northampton Town.

The game was only two minutes old, when the home side took the lead, from their second attack of the night, courtesy of Andy Butler firmly planting a back post header into the top corner of the net from James Coppinger's right wing cross.
Tommy Rowe linked up with Coppinger, before picking out John Marquis with a square pass, who crashed a thumping shot against the right upright, inside the first five minutes.
Coppinger, who at this rate will still be running through brick walls for the Rovers cause until he is approximately sixty years old, just keeps getting better with age... and given the amount of goalmouth ammunition he was providing, Darren Ferguson's side could, and should, have been well out of sight and beyond the reach of their forlorn visitors ,before the half hour mark, but Dame Fortune had obviously decided to take up a position in the centre of Bury's back five, as chance after chance went begging.

Joe Murphy in the Bury goal either had a sixth sense as regards his positional awareness or the home side were using him for target practice, given that the ball seemed to gravitate into his arms, time and time again. It was only a matter of time until Doncaster scored again, in light of their dominance, and in the thirty fifth minute, Matt Blair unselfishly rolled the ball sideways to John Marquis, eight yards in front of the visitors goal and he looped the ball over the advancing Murphy with a clinically executed 'dink'.

Rovers had the bit between their teeth now and as an expectant crowd eagerly anticipated a rout, the 'Donny' defender Niall Mason, duly obliged three minutes later, with a textbook headed finish into the top right hand corner of the net... if only somebody could have warned him it still the first half and the teams hadn't actually changed ends yet, then I doubt very much if Bury would've had the inclination to chase a three goal deficit.

But now that it was 2-1, courtesy of Mason's own goal, from Callum Sykes long free kick, out on the right flank had given the hitherto ineffective visitors a spring in their step and moments before half time, the Shakers were almost on level terms, when their captain Neil Danns smashed an angled shot into the side netting from the left hand side of Rovers six yard box.
HT: Rovers 2 v Shakers 1

During the interval I bumped into a lad I've known since infant school, who despite his team's encouraging all out attacking first half efforts, had a doomed expression etched across his face: "They're going to chuck this away y'know. All that effort, all of those chances and we can't finish the team at the bottom off. We won't win this, you just watch!"
Hmm, well whatever he did and didn't learn while we passed through three different levels of educationalfacilities together, he's certainly an expert on what was always his favourite subject... Donny Rovers!
Six minutes after the restart, Matty Blair tripped Phil Edwards inside his own penalty area and Jay O'Shea stroked home the resulting spot kick to put Ryan Lowe's team back in the game at two goals apiece.

It was beyond all logic that 'Donny' weren't already four of five goals ahead by now, yet Bury were on level terms, without even having tried too hard to get into such a position. And the complete turnaround of events hadn't half boosted their confidence, as they suddenly adopted a gung-ho approach... and as they swept forward down the right on the hour mark, the ball ended up in the back of Rovers net, after Zeli Ismail drilled the ball diagonally across the area, to where George Miller stabbed the ball inside the left hand post from close range.
Miller was clearly offside, but only by a couple of yards, while the linesman wasn't in line with play and couldn't possibly have made a decision from where he'd found himself stranded so far behind the action. So by applying the rule: 'If unsure, give the attacking side the benefit of the doubt' (that's not really a rule by the way), the 'dodgy' goal stood.

All of Rovers first half endeavours had been for nowt and Adie's half time premonition had come eerily true.
But never fear, Coppinger's here... and the Rovers talisman delivered a pinpoint corner kick from the left flank, onto the head of Andy Boyle, who gave Murphy no chance as he diverted the ball beyond his reach.
The 'Donny' youngsters on the so called 'Black Bank' to my left were making a proper racket to try and lift their team, while some grizzly old soaks around me cussed and moaned about their side not being able to beat a 'team like Bury'

I was even tempted to join in with that song that goes: "Whoah, oh! Whoah oh! Na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Whoah, oh! Whoah oh!", if only to drown out the whinging miserable buggers in the East Stand, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to remember all of the words.

Both sides played out a lively climax to the game, during which time I was disappointed that Coppinger was taken off with eleven minutes remaining, because even though he deserved a rest, he's one of the main attractions at Rovers, if not the main (and often the only) one.

So as an entertaining, intriguing, completely unfathomable and crazy game came to an end, 'Donny' were still a mid table side and Bury were still destined for the basement division, but everybody present had got their money's worth... even the moaning faction who booed Rovers from the pitch.

FT: Doncaster Rovers 3 v Bury 3