Doncaster Rovers 0 v Charlton Athletic 1 - EFL League 1

Saturday 19th March 2022

EFL League One

Doncaster Rovers  (0) 0

Charlton Athletic (0) 1

Corey Blackett-Taylor 67

Attendance: 6,350 (inc. 636 away fans)

Doncaster Rovers: 

Mitchell, Knoyle, Williams, Olowu, Barlow (Younger 46), Smith (Bostock 75), Clayton, Jackson (Martin 72), Rowe (C), Hiwula, Dodoo

Unused subs - Jones, Horton, Gardner, Griffiths

Charlton Athletic: 

MacGillivray, Clare, Lavelle, Purrington, Matthews, Gilbey, Dobson, Fraser (Lee 90+2), Blackett-Taylor (Famewo 90), Stockley (C), Washington

Unused subs - Harness, Pearce, Jaiyesimi, Leko, Burstow

Today I witnessed by far the worst ever Doncaster Rovers performance I have ever seen... and I'm even including that shitty year when they were struggling to preserve their Football League status, before plummeting into the Conference in 1998 in that sweeping statement. Back in the dark old days when Prince Moncrieffe with a season total of eight goals was their top scorer and home crowds averaged out at a paltry 1,715 across a campaign of woe and discontent. 

In football, they say anything is mathematically possible, but the possibility of 'Donny' avoiding the drop this season urinates on that myth from a very great height.

The only questions that this game raised, other than when is Rovers relegation going to be officially confirmed? Was: how the effing hell have Charlton only won such a one-sided game by just a single goal after dominating throughout? And how on earth did it take them until almost the seventieth minute to finally find the net?

The Addicks were almost punished for squandering so many clear cut chances throughout the game, when inside the closing minutes Craig MacGillivray made his first save of the afternoon deep into stoppage-time, as he got down behind Tommy Rowe’s well struck long shot to preserve a third successive clean sheet for his side.

Until his late interjection I hadn't even noticed that Rovers captain Rowe was actually even on the pitch today, in fact one could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that their goalkeeper: Jonathan Mitchell, had been given the task of facing Charlton all on his own. Although, that said, Ben Jackson also played no small part in restricting the visitors to such a narrow margin of victory when he made a doal-line clearance to deny Jayden Stockley inside the opening five minutes.

Corey Blackett-Taylor was running at and giving a torrid time of things to the hosts defence all afternoon and in the fifteenth minute he was upended by Kyle Knoyle inside the 'Donny' area, giving the referee Sam Allison no option other than to blow-up and point to the penalty spot.

Conor Washington took the resulting spot-kick, but Mitchell pulled off a save to deny the Northern Ireland international.

Social media was awash with posts about Washington's missed penalty, which wasn't entirely true. Because he hadn't missed at all, his strike was low, hard and on target but Mitchell went the right way and pulled off a great save... so credit where it's due.

The overworked keeper then kept out both Washington and Stockley with a brace of saves in quick succession.

Ben Jackson and Matt Smith both had half chances to dent the visitors backline, but were marshalled away from danger by the Addicks well organised defence.

HT: Doncaster Rovers 0 v Charlton Athletic 0

The second half continued in pretty much the same manner as the first had ended, with Charlton in the ascendancy and Rovers doing a passable impression of a team of Lance-Corporal Jones' (AKA Clive Dunn) from Dad's Army running around like headless chickens yelling "Don't panic Captain Mainwaring!" as the fuzzy-wuzzies descended upon the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard HQ. While outside in the car-park the Rovers faithful made good use Private Frazer's "We're doomed!" catchphrase.

To think, this kind of 'humour' used to pass itself off as 'must watch' TV when there were only a couple of channels to watch.

Charlton finally and deservedly went in front in the sixty-seventh minute when Blackett-Taylor skipped past a challenge on the left flank before cutting a cross back from the dead ball line to Stockley at the near post, who diverted an angled knock beyond Mitchell and into the far corner of the net.

Mitchell, who had put in a shift beyond the call of duty this afternoon, kept Washington at bay after going one-against-one with the Addicks number fourteen and Stockley smashed the ball against the crossbar as the ball ran loose.

Had Rowe's late chance resulted in Rovers snatching an unlikely draw, it would have been a travesty of a result, yet it might have cajoled Charlton into applying themselves a bit more thoroughly in front of the oppositions goal in future.

Although in saying that, they did all that they could for the most part today, only to be thwarted time and time again by a goalkeeper who had morphed into Peter Parker for ninety-plus minutes.

All told, 'twas a thoroughly warranted three points for Johnnie Jackson's team but as regards Jonathan Mitchell... well played that man.

FT: Doncaster Rovers 0 v Charlton Athletic 1

Charlton had been rampant in spells, especially when Blackett-Taylor was running at the homes sides defence, but without wanting to rain on anyone's parade, this was certainly a case of that you can only beat what is in front of you and Donny Rovers were disjointed, nowhere like the required standard for League 1 and, in a nutshell, bloody rubbish! 

I don't think that anybody in League 2 will have anything to worry about when they slip down a division any time soon.