The first ever FA Cup meeting between Blackburn and Doncaster, saw the visitors emerge victorious in their second ‘Battle of the Rovers’ this season, as they avenged August’s Carabao Cup First Round defeat, by frustrating Rovers and leaving Ewood Park with their name in the hat for Monday’s Fourth Round draw.
The starting line-up saw six changes to Rovers’ last outing, which came a week ago, in the 2-0 victory over Birmingham City. Aynsley Pears, John Buckley, Tom Trybull, Stewart Downing, Tyrhys Dolan and Bradley Dack all came into the starting side, as half a dozen players were given a rest. Thomas Kaminski, Barry Douglas, Jacob Davenport, Harvey Elliott, Sam Gallagher and Adam Armstrong were the six who departed, but they all found themselves on the substitutes bench.
With both sides out on the rather balding Ewood Park turf, it was Blackburn who got the tie underway with the hope that they could ease past their Rovers counterparts, in an easier fashion than August’s encounter was and head into the Fourth Round for the first time since the 2016-17 season, which took them all the way to the Fifth Round, before Manchester United knocked them out by a 2-1 scoreline.
It took until the 11th minute for the first chance of the game to appear as Aynsley Pears was forced into the game’s first save. A mix-up in the Rovers midfield by Ben Brereton and Bradley Dack saw Doncaster break. The ball was thread through to Arsenal loanee Tyreece John-Jules, but his effort was well denied by the on-rushing Pears who regained possession of the loose ball after Lewis Travis nodded the ball back to him.
Five minutes later, Doncaster’s ascendency continued as Taylor Richards closed in on goal after Rovers were bamboozled by a give and go on the edge of their own area by the visitors. The on-loan Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder got on the end of the return ball before finding the space required to release an effort at goal which came from a tight angle, however the shot lacked the curve or conviction to nestle into the far corner, despite Rovers and Pears being beaten.
Rovers’ first attempt of the half saw Ben Brereton try his luck on the 24th minute, but it didn’t trouble on-loan Brentford shot-stopper Ellery Balcombe, as the effort was ballooned over the bar.
Bradley Dack was soon the next Rovers player to test the Doncaster goal, as he tried to curl in a free-kick from around 25-yards, but the effort lacked the required spin to put it into the top right-hand corner, as it edged narrowly wide of the post.
Another Rovers chance went begging in the 34th minute when a low ball by Tom Trybull, across the face of goal saw all the bodies in the box miss it, as well as Darragh Lenihan at the back-post, who had the best chance of tucking it home and giving Rovers the lead, but Doncaster were spared for their momentary lapse in concentration as the home side missed the ball completely from yards out.
The game’s first booking came to Stewart Downing after the veteran’s 35th minute tackle was deemed late by referee Samuel Barrott.
Rovers again came forward three minutes after the booking as Dack tried to divert Travis’s effort from the edge of the area, towards goal, but it was well stopped by Balcombe, via a reactionary save.
It didn’t take long for Travis to find his name taken by the match official, as his scissor-esque challenge inside the Doncaster half was late.
The home side’s lacklustre opening 45 minutes in which they failed to muster an attempt on target was soon compounded as the visitors took the lead in the tie. Taylor Richards picked up the ball inside the Rovers half and drove towards goal looking for an option. Simultaneously, Rovers’ makeshift backline continued to back off and allow the on-loan midfielder room. Richards’ gravitational pull towards the goal soon saw him around 25-yards away from goal without a defender in arms-length, which promoted him to try his luck from range. That decision proved worthwhile as the low effort was spilled by Pears, almost as if it had gone through his gloves, and nestled into the right-hand side net meshing, as Doncaster took a rather unsurprising lead, given the game’s balance of play, at 1-0, just three minutes prior to the break.
Although Rovers were shocked by the visitors taking the lead, they were unable to muster anything between the restart and the break, as Doncaster headed into the break as the leaders.
During the half-time interval, Tony Mowbray would have been fuming with how his side had lacked a firm grip on the tie. Despite ending the half with 66% possession, Mowbray’s men were unable to do anything with it, as a staunch Doncaster side continued their fine run of form from the league, into the cup. The home manager would have been calling on his side to use their experience and quality in order to override the League One side, as they did in the Carabao Cup.
Darren Moore would have been pleased with how his side had come to Ewood Park, and once again put on a good showing for their fans who would have been watching from afar. The League One side, who are currently in the playoff places in the third tier, showed that they had the quality, patience and defensive resilience to compete at the second tier, as well as the attacking threat to trouble players of higher quality. The former Rovers coach, who’s now at the helm at Donny would have been asking his side for a repeat performance of the first-half, but also for them to keep in mind Rovers’ strong bench which included a lot of firepower.
Just before Donny got the game back underway from the kick-off, Tony Mowbray executed his first change of the game, as Barry Douglas was introduced in-place of Amari’i Bell, who had picked up a knock in the first period.
Rovers were nearly level inside the first minute via what was close to being a freak goal. Donny ‘keeper Balcombe took a long time to clear his lines, before being closed down by Dack. The keeper’s hesitancy nearly cost him as his clearance deflected off Dack and behind him, but luckily for the visitors, the ball dropped into the empty Blackburn End stand, rather than the back of the net.
Speaking of freak goals, the 53rd minute nearly saw Stewart Downing bag his first of the season, directly from an in-swinging corner. The former England international curled in a corner which beat everyone and looked to nestle into the far net meshing – à la Charlie Mulgrew vs West Bromwich Albion in 2019 – however the home side were denied an equaliser by Tom Anderson’s pressure header which saw the Donny skipper play it off the crossbar, for the woodwork to clear his lines for him.
A minute later, Rovers’ pressure continued as Dack was afforded half a chance, but the forward couldn’t add to last week’s goal, as he narrowly missed the near-post.
Tony Mowbray decided to make a further two of a possible five changes to take his substitute tally to three on the 58th minute. Joe Rothwell and Harvey Elliott made their way onto the field to replace Lewis Travis and Stewart Downing in order to add more youth and attacking energy to Rovers’ play.
Elliott’s introduction brought the required spark as the 62nd minute saw him cut in and try and curl an effort towards goal using his left-foot, but the shot edged narrowly wide of the mark.
Adam Armstrong was soon called upon for Rovers on the 64th minute, as Rovers’ top scorer replaced Tom Trybull.
Doncaster soon made their first change of the afternoon on the 67th minute as Jason Lokilo replaced the goalscorer, Taylor Richards.
The 72nd minute saw debutant Ellery Balcombe produce a double save as Elliott’s shot from the edge of the area, which looked destined to nestle into the top left-hand corner, was clawed away by Balcombe into the path of Dack, whose rebound was again well stopped by via a reflex save from the shot-stopper, before the ball was cleared behind for a corner which Rovers wasted.
That chance proved to be Dack’s final involvement in the game as he was soon hooked off less than 60 seconds later and replaced by Jacob Davenport.
The 80th minute saw a melee followed by a flurry of bookings after Andy Butler hacked down Davenport. Referee Samuel Barrott, after diffusing the situation, ended up handing out bookings to Butler, for the late challenge as well as Cameron John and Harvey Elliott for their role in the fracas.
Rovers again came knocking in the 83rd minute, but Donny refused to open the door. A Barry Douglas set-piece was kept alive by Brereton, before Adam Armstrong’s first sight at goal was well blocked by the Doncaster defenders who kept putting their bodies on the line for the cause.
As Rovers huffed and puffed, they thought they’d unlocked the valiant visitor’s defence in the 88th minute when Joe Rothwell picked out John Buckley with a fabulous pass, but the midfielder-turned-right-back, who came drifting in unmarked at the back-post, failed to connect with the cross, as it bounced underneath his raised foot and went behind for a goal-kick.
Although four minutes of time was added on, Doncaster continued to stifle Rovers and reduced their efforts at goal to mere long-range attempts which proved to be ‘meat and drink’ to Balcombe and his defence.
The final act of the game, saw Jacob Davenport, booked as that summarised what turned out to be a dreary afternoon for Rovers, as they crashed out of the Third Round for a fourth successive season.
Firstly, it’s imperative to praise Darren Moore and Doncaster Rovers for their victory and wish them every success in both, their League One campaign and the future FA Cup games they shall play. However, the real post-mortem for Rovers begins now – amongst fans at least – following a rather embarrassing home cup exit. Once again, it seemed as if Rovers didn’t start playing until after they had lost their clean sheet, which again offers frustrations to all the fans and leaves us pondering why that always seems the case. Rovers ended the first-half with 66% possession and nine attempts, with none of them being on target. That ultimately brings us back to a point mentioned in last week’s Match Report regarding ‘style over substance’, whilst it’d be silly to repeat what was previously mentioned, it does offer a lot of food for thought and suggests that the mentality of the squad isn’t where we would like it, or indeed it should be. Whilst some could argue that injuries are also a key factor as to why Rovers struggled today, with Amari’i Bell being the latest Rovers casualty, it is a wonder why Mowbray didn’t save the likes of Darragh Lenihan and Bradley Johnson – two key cogs of Rovers’ recent matchday squads – and offer the promising youth team members a chance, such as Joe Grayson and Dan Pike. On the topic of birthday boy Pike, one must wonder why an attacking midfielder, in John Buckley, was preferred to at right-back than Pike, who himself is a natural in the position.
With Rovers’ attentions now firmly focussed back on the league for the remainder of 2020-21, they will now be working towards their next fixture, which is next Saturday (16th January), which sees the visit of Stoke City to Ewood Park for the 3pm kick-off. After that encounter, Rovers are again at Ewood, hosting Swansea City on Tuesday 19th January with kick-off scheduled for 7pm. Following the double header of home league games, Rovers are back on the road as they travel north to the Riverside to face Neil Warnock’s Middlesbrough on Saturday 23rd January at 3pm.
