Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Bolton Wanderers

Doncaster Rovers 2-1 Bolton Wanderers
Sky Bet League One
Tuesday 11th February 2020

It's rare that I ever get that bothered about football results but this was one which I was quite happy about afterwards!

Doncaster Rovers beat Bolton Wanderers in atrocious conditions at the Keepmoat Stadium. It wasn't as comfortable in terms of the margin of victory as it perhaps ought to have been, nor was the performance even that good, but they got the job done and firmly quietened the gobby visitors.

The dislike for Bolton stems from the attitude of their fans - quite a lot of whom have given it the 'billy big b*llocks' ever since the reverse fixture was just simply cancelled on a whim back in August.

Without delving too deep into the cock and bull story of 'protecting young players' from fatigue; it's utter rubbish as then-manager Phil Parkinson could easily have rotated the inexperienced squad which he had. Their actions essentially amounted to failing to fulfil a fixture. My suspicion is that the decision was probably forced on him and he then needed to come up with what seemed a reasonable excuse to cancel the game. In any case, he'd obviously had enough of the sh*t show surrounding him as he came to his senses and resigned only a few days later - and who can blame him?

A points deduction as punishment (for the cancelled game) wouldn't make any difference now in the grand scheme of things as Bolton are going down with a whimper. Everyone knows it and it's just a matter of time before it's mathematically confirmed.

However, what grated on me the most was the way in which Bolton's fans wallowed in Rovers' complaints, through their blinkered loyalty to a club which had got itself right up the creek without a paddle in the first place. It's typical 'fan' behaviour and there's are plenty of examples over the years where different clubs make mistakes, screw up and don't act well, but sometimes fans need to take the blinkers off, dispose of their blinded loyalty and silly tribalism (which often becomes abusive when they see something they don't like), and just view things in the grander scheme of things.

Instead, their loutishness on social media platforms, was in poor taste. It was in stark contrast to a few weeks earlier when they'd got the begging buckets out and were pleading poverty and overall, it felt akin to sympathising with a local beggar only for them to jump in a limousine and stick two fingers up for good measure as a sign of gratitude.

Next time they're beyond skint because this is the second time it's happened in a relatively short space of time, I suspect a lot of fans (certainly those in Doncaster anyway) will tell the Bolton lot to go forth and multiply.

The EFL definitely made mistakes and criticism of them is entirely justified as they've screwed plenty up over the past year or so. Whether the game was re-arranged to a later date or a punishment imposed actually didn't bother me that much - it was the attitude of their 'supporters' which rankled and didn't sit right.

Needless to say that behaviour, coupled with prolific social media numpties who've attached themselves to BWFC such as 'Thogden' and 'Thogdad' (who, by going by a nickname at 50-something years-old on the back of his son's 'success' comes across as a right plonker), doesn't make them very likeable. It's a world away from their Premier League days when they wanted to almost forge a reputation as a small-town club, punching above their weight, with celebrity fans and an obvious 'second club' choice for everyone.

So that's my reasoning behind why I wanted Donny Rovers to get a win - even more so considering the visitors weren't exactly gracious with their chants or individual comments before, during and after the game.

The overall performance wasn't the best by the hosts; it was laborious and they made hard-work out of achieving victory. However, two pieces of good football was the key to success with Fejiri Okenabirhie bagging the first goal on 40 minutes, before Niall Ennis headed home James Coppinger's sublime cross to make it 2-0 not too long after the re-start.

Rovers would have had put the result beyond doubt (and potentially opened up the floodgates for a good old hammering) if Bolton's 'keeper hadn't made an instinctive smothering stop to keep out Ennis' shot when he seized upon a sloppy back-pass. Instead, a defensive mistake at the other end gave the visitors a goal and ensured a nervy final half-hour.

For all Bolton's endeavour, they seemed a bit disjointed and didn't seriously look like creating anything special to get the equaliser which they wanted. Probably, as current boss Keith Hill has alluded to already in recent weeks, there's too many misfits within their newly-shaped squad, not enough balance and not enough people on the same page.

The result was overshadowed by a nasty injury to Reece James not long before half-time, which provoked a furious reaction from the Rovers bench as it occurred just in front of the technical area; quite close to the tunnel. Hopefully, it won't be too serious for the full-back and he'll be back in action quite soon with no lasting damage.

It was pleasing to get a few words with David Flitcroft; Wanderers' assistant boss who was linked with the Donny job last summer, shortly after the final whistle and it turns out we have quite a few things in common from experiences elsewhere in football.

The only 'experiences' which Bolton's fans have to look forward to are games against Morecambe, Newport County and Salford City next season!