A not-so-bore draw between the Reds and the Rovers..

Nottingham Forest - 0
Doncaster Rovers - 0

It was to be an afternoon of slight frustration for Forest, who just couldn’t quite get the final ball right against a decent Doncaster side.  Listening to the radio on the way home, Messrs Fray and McGovern were suggesting that Rovers had come to the City Ground to defend in numbers, which we’ve seen so often, I think that does our visitors a disservice.

The first half was very much a battle of the midfield and their ability to hold up play - and it was the holding up of play that won the day, resulting in little breaking at either end for either side.  Forest probably had the edge on possession, but it’s fair to say they didn’t do all that much with it on occasions - with plenty of sloppy passing and farting around with the ball when it should have been released earlier.

Probably the closest we came was when Nathan Tyson put in a great ball from the left, but rather than come infront of the defender, Agogo had gambled behind him - obviously the defender managed to sneak a leg out to concede the corner instead.  It was a good move though, and sparked a bit of promise into the performance.

The Donny fans took an age to realise they hadn’t actually scored when Hayter put the ball in the net - he and Coppinger had spent much of the half giving the linesman flagging practice, and once again on this occasion the forward was offside before slotting the ball home.  The away fans below us were still gesturing 1-0 for a good 2 minutes after the event!

The other thing worth mentioning was the referee who was, as ever it seems, abysmal.  He failed to punish the repeated fouls on Tyson, Cohen was also getting a regular shoeing from the canny Rovers players - they’d clearly identified our danger men, as Commons always had three men on him immediately upon getting the ball.

The next chance of note came from great work by Agogo, he was free down the left and Tyson was making up ground in the centre.  Unfortunately Agogo took an age to notice this, and released a terrible pass far too late, which saw Tyson - frustrated - go for regardless, overstretch himself as well as getting a clattering from a defender - which saw him down for some time for treatment.

The final chance of the half - if you could call these chances (you’ll note Sullivan as yet has had very little to do!) when Commons played a corner short to Cohen - at which point I was cursing the evil of short corners - Cohen managed a weak shot from the edge of the box, and it looked as though Tyson just clipped it - but only enough to, if anything, make it easier for the keeper to make the save.

Early in the second half it looked to me like we really should’ve scored.  A Bennett cross ended up running right across the face of goal with no Forest player close enough to capitalise.  Forest picked up though, and put some real pressure on - Chambers crossed to Agogo, who for me should’ve shot, but he unselfishly played the ball to Commons running in, but alas his effort went straight at the ‘keeper - that again should have been a goal.

The referee came into his own shortly after this - Tyson was felled by an obstruction but eventually managed to get free of the defender, only for the clown of a referee to amazingly give a freekick to Doncaster.  Shortly after this he ignored a fairly blatant handball by a Rovers midfielder, then gave them another freekick after Lennon did well to nip the ball away from Wellens.

Kelvin Wilson bizarrely took the ball forward, one-two-ing it with Junior Agogo and showing a fair lick of pace to get into the box, but the left-footed shot was high, wide and not particularly handsome.  At this point though the visitors came back into the game - Wellens had a decent shot saved by Smith, and he had more work to do in gathering a cross.

Grant was brought on for the frustrated Tyson, however shortly after this Doncaster hit th ebar with a cracking effort from Mark Wilson.  The rebound fell to Hayter who’s headed response was pretty tame, fortunately for us, so Wilson and Bennett were able to clear up and get the ball away to safety.

Straight up at the other end Commons put in a cross to the far post where Grant Holt won a terrific header that was bound for the top corner before Neil Sullivan stuck an arm out to concede a corner - this was probably Sullivan’s only difficult job of the day.  The corner came in and Chambers was right to have his head in his hands, because he should easily have scored from practically a yard off the goal line.

The final chance fell to Agogo - who had been on the deck earlier with cramp - as a Cohen corner was pumped to the back post, but he couldn’t get his header on target so instead it went into the lower Trent End, which near enough heralded the end of a game that was frustrating, but entertaining in spells.

I definitely think that Doncaster have been the best side to visit the City Ground this season - whilst they defended doggedly and took full advantage of the inept referee, they attacked brightly and cleverly with the ball on the deck.  Forest weren’t canny enough to spot the opportunities their policy of double and triple marking some of our players was opening up elsewhere on the park.

I’m not too unhappy with the performance, and on balance I think a draw was a fair result.  It’s true that either side could’ve nicked a win, and had we been that side we’d be sitting proudly atop the table now rather than dropping down to fourth, but sometimes you just have to consider your glass as being half full instead of half empty!

With Grant Holt due an operation next week, it’s good news that Arron Davies is back in training and due a couple of reserve games this week, it’s also not too far away before we find out the destiny of this game in hand we’ve been sitting on for a while.  But first up is a tricky trip to Luton next week - not to mention Leeds getting another win, they’re only 3 points behind us now!

The only other thing of note for today is I thought it was a poor showing from Neil Lennon today.  Having jumped to defend him a while back it’s only fair to acknowledge when things don’t go so well - he’s a sod for playing a poor pass then remonstrating with the poor bugger he’s sold short, and I was a bit bamboozled when he was on the deck as if seriously injured whilst play went on, only to trot to the dugout then back to action minutes later.