Cutting edge

Sean O'Driscoll has urged his Doncaster side to be more ruthless after neighbours Barnsley snatched a 1-0 away win.

Rovers were the better side for much of the South Yorkshire derby but Adam Hammill fired a classy 74th-minute winner to give the Tykes local bragging rights.

That secured a third straight victory for Barnsley, who continued their climb away from the foot of the table since the appointment of Mark Robins.

But O'Driscoll fears Doncaster could slip into the drop zone if they do not become more clinical in front of goal as a seventh game without a win leaves them just three points above the bottom three.

"Getting beaten when you have outplayed the opposition is something of a common theme for us," he said.

One mistake
"We made one mistake and that's enough at this level. We've been here before, but I would take that performance every day.

"If we perform like that every week I will have no complaints, but I am disappointed with the result. If you don't take your chances you give the opposition a chance."

Strange then that a player who scored on average last season once every 1.8 games he played in can't make the team, how many game does Billy Sharp play without scoring before he gets dropped? I will guarantee it will be every game till Xmas. How many games will Hayter get before letting Paul Heffernan play, every game for the whole season if he stays fit. When we are bottom of the division at Xmas we will suddenly find that Paul Heffernan could have been scoring goals all season again. I would support SOD all the wayu but i would just like to ask him what his REAL problem is with Paul Heffernan.

aye, i know where you're coming from, the only criticism i can make of what you are suggesting is about billy though.

when you consider that billy was brought in as the answer to everybody calling for a striker, it would be a bit rediculous to drop him. (admittedly if he hasnt scored again up to xmas then i may be singing from a different hymn sheet, lol).

but yes, i do think heffs should be given a chance...again.

Billy had a good game yesterday, as a support striker. He pulled defenders all over the place, fought for the ball, had one pop at goal (offside). The trouble we have with all our "strikers" though is that if they are doing all this then they tend not to be in the box at the crucial moment. With Heffs, as the ball comes forward watch his instincts, that is if you ever see him play again (I have my doubts). He heads straight into the box and tries to get on to the end of whatever other players produce, that is a striker, and that is why he scores, and why SOD doesn't like him I suspect. That is what I want from a striker, inside the 5 minutes he had to play Heffs had one attempt on goal and set a chance up, he should not be ignored for much longer.
No great criticisms of the other players we have on the field, they are all very good players and the football was the best I have seen this season from my few ventures to see Rovers so far. In the end though we should have scored and we didn't.

East Yorks Rover wrote:Billy had a good game yesterday, as a support striker. He pulled defenders all over the place, fought for the ball, had one pop at goal (offside). The trouble we have with all our "strikers" though is that if they are doing all this then they tend not to be in the box at the crucial moment. With Heffs, as the ball comes forward watch his instincts, that is if you ever see him play again (I have my doubts). He heads straight into the box and tries to get on to the end of whatever other players produce, that is a striker, and that is why he scores, and why SOD doesn't like him I suspect. That is what I want from a striker, inside the 5 minutes he had to play Heffs had one attempt on goal and set a chance up, he should not be ignored for much longer.
No great criticisms of the other players we have on the field, they are all very good players and the football was the best I have seen this season from my few ventures to see Rovers so far. In the end though we should have scored and we didn't.

I still think that if Fairhurst had been allowed to play for longer he would have made a difference, and as the game went on i would have liked to see Guy brought on, his speed could have made the difference, why oh why Sod has to leave it so late to make any Subs is beyond me, apart from wasting time he might as well not have bothered....At half time i really thought that game was ours for the taking, barnsley were the worst side i have seen and had been totally outplayed from start to end.

yorkie64red wrote:

East Yorks Rover wrote:Billy had a good game yesterday, as a support striker. He pulled defenders all over the place, fought for the ball, had one pop at goal (offside). The trouble we have with all our "strikers" though is that if they are doing all this then they tend not to be in the box at the crucial moment. With Heffs, as the ball comes forward watch his instincts, that is if you ever see him play again (I have my doubts). He heads straight into the box and tries to get on to the end of whatever other players produce, that is a striker, and that is why he scores, and why SOD doesn't like him I suspect. That is what I want from a striker, inside the 5 minutes he had to play Heffs had one attempt on goal and set a chance up, he should not be ignored for much longer.
No great criticisms of the other players we have on the field, they are all very good players and the football was the best I have seen this season from my few ventures to see Rovers so far. In the end though we should have scored and we didn't.

I still think that if Fairhurst had been allowed to play for longer he would have made a difference, and as the game went on i would have liked to see Guy brought on, his speed could have made the difference, why oh why Sod has to leave it so late to make any Subs is beyond me, apart from wasting time he might as well not have bothered....At half time i really thought that game was ours for the taking, barnsley were the worst side i have seen and had been totally outplayed from start to end.

I disagree with your view on the Barnsley side I saw yesterday, they were far from the worst we have played this season (sour grapes) ?
They were organised in defense , strong in the air all over the pitch and tried to attack when they had the opportunity ; that said we were a class above in every area save the tactical nounce and intransigence of our manager.
Of course Hayter shouldn't have played , it has been said many times that Heffs is the best and most effective player that we have in the penalty box and to leave both him and a 'local' lad in Fairhurst out of the team for all but the last 10 minutes strikes me as pure madness.

You outplayed us. Admitted. But you were toothless, all neat tip-tap stuff in the middle of the park. To say all the possesion you had, there wasn't many times in the game when i thought oh no, they're going to score.

You are a very decent team and WILL NOT go down this year, regardless of your goal scoring problems. We wern't at the races yesterday but it's nice to see us play relativley poorly and still get 3 points and a clean sheet.

It's nice to see another team try and play in the right way. All that said though, i wouldnt say we robbed you yesterday. De silva (i think it was) had a simular opportunity to how we scored but hit the side netting and Halfredsson forgot to shoot with a ball over the top that eventually trickled through to Sullivan.

R+R

Dale BFC wrote:You outplayed us. Admitted. But you were toothless, all neat tip-tap stuff in the middle of the park. To say all the possesion you had, there wasn't many times in the game when i thought oh no, they're going to score.

You are a very decent team and WILL NOT go down this year, regardless of your goal scoring problems. We wern't at the races yesterday but it's nice to see us play relativley poorly and still get 3 points and a clean sheet.

It's nice to see another team try and play in the right way. All that said though, i wouldnt say we robbed you yesterday. De silva (i think it was) had a simular opportunity to how we scored but hit the side netting and Halfredsson forgot to shoot with a ball over the top that eventually trickled through to Sullivan.

R+R

Come on Dale we hit the crossbar with a cracker from Shiels and had 2 goals that were 'apparently' offside, how you can go round the last defender on two (yes two) occasions and be called offside is beyond me. Alreet fella thy 'as braggin rights fo' narr...........long season to go dun't wet thissen.
I am more worried about the thinking behind the apparent tactical substitutions, have this mentality from the manager and we'll be well fooked!!

hoolahoop wrote:

Dale BFC wrote:You outplayed us. Admitted. But you were toothless, all neat tip-tap stuff in the middle of the park. To say all the possesion you had, there wasn't many times in the game when i thought oh no, they're going to score.

You are a very decent team and WILL NOT go down this year, regardless of your goal scoring problems. We wern't at the races yesterday but it's nice to see us play relativley poorly and still get 3 points and a clean sheet.

It's nice to see another team try and play in the right way. All that said though, i wouldnt say we robbed you yesterday. De silva (i think it was) had a simular opportunity to how we scored but hit the side netting and Halfredsson forgot to shoot with a ball over the top that eventually trickled through to Sullivan.

R+R

Come on Dale we hit the crossbar with a cracker from Shiels and had 2 goals that were 'apparently' offside, how you can go round the last defender on two (yes two) occasions and be called offside is beyond me. Alreet fella thy 'as braggin rights fo' narr...........long season to go dun't wet thissen.
I am more worried about the thinking behind the apparent tactical substitutions, have this mentality from the manager and we'll be well fooked!!

Well as for the offsides...I only heard it on radio pig...but the Donny analyst (Buckley was it) said although they were close...they were correct!...In turn Our Analyst (Derrick Parker) said you were dominating the game so much ...that after an hour he wanted to go home!

Braggin rights for nar? Long season dun't wet thisen? Foook me fella, sounds like you can't wait to get rid of the memory of losing to us by deluding yourselves that you hammered us and should have won 100 - 0. Its fooball mate, live in the moment. Whats point in that mentality? Do you say 'oreight, you've been promoted to the prem, you'l get hammered anyway and come straight back down' to any small club that gets promoted? Get a grip fella. BTW only just seen that you've won 1 game all season.....oh dear.

Unless you can prove to me that the 2 offside goals wernt offiside then i simply won't beleive you. Yes you had chances, and so you foookin should, your at home (which eluded our players at Cov at home)

R+R

Barnsleytilidie wrote:

Well as for the offsides...I only heard it on radio pig...but the Donny analyst (Buckley was it) said although they were close...they were correct!...In turn Our Analyst (Derrick Parker) said you were dominating the game so much ...that after an hour he wanted to go home!

Well, sat where we sit I honestly can't comment on the accuracy of the first offside because I'm at the other end of the pitch but the 2nd one Sharp looked to go around and turn the defender. But that's football and we can discuss who dominated until the cows come home - end of day we switched off from a set piece again and paid the price

About the subs, I thought we should have made some after the goal, not 12 minutes later. Up until the goal there wasn't a great deal to change but afterwards... O'Driscoll always says goals change games, well maybe they should change tactics as well?

Dale BFC wrote:Braggin rights for nar? Long season dun't wet thisen? Foook me fella, sounds like you can't wait to get rid of the memory of losing to us by deluding yourselves that you hammered us and should have won 100 - 0. Its fooball mate, live in the moment. Whats point in that mentality? Do you say 'oreight, you've been promoted to the prem, you'l get hammered anyway and come straight back down' to any small club that gets promoted? Get a grip fella. BTW only just seen that you've won 1 game all season.....oh dear.

Unless you can prove to me that the 2 offside goals wernt offiside then i simply won't beleive you. Yes you had chances, and so you foookin should, your at home (which eluded our players at Cov at home)

R+R

Then you haven't read my posts on your good performance have you Dale.
Quote from post above that I made:-
'I disagree with your view on the Barnsley side I saw yesterday, they were far from the worst we have played this season (sour grapes) ?
They were organised in defense , strong in the air all over the pitch and tried to attack when they had the opportunity '
BTW, we've only lost 3 to West Brom, M'boro' and you! Lighten up fella, you can pillock but to infer that I was saying/implying we would win 100-0 is nonsense , especially in light of the earlier post above.

I know who you need to give you the all important cutting edge, Francis Jeffers. He has an eye for goal and rarely misses with his head.

Adam Hammill is class.

The Wednesday wrote:I know who you need to give you the all important cutting edge, Francis Jeffers. He has an eye for goal and rarely misses with his head.

Thanks but no thanks.

hoolahoop wrote:

The Wednesday wrote:I know who you need to give you the all important cutting edge, Francis Jeffers. He has an eye for goal and rarely misses with his head.

Thanks but no thanks.

We'll stick with our Lewis, he's brilliant in training, like an exocet waiting to be unleashed.....

A partnership between Odejayi & Jeffers sounds perfect to me?