Stamford 0-4 Doncaster Rovers

Stamford 0-4 Doncaster Rovers

Pre-Season Friendly

Tuesday 16th July 2024

As pre-season games go, this was a pretty steady night for Doncaster Rovers and the difference in quality showed as they eased to a 4-0 win over Stamford.

For some reason, the two halves lasted for an hour (with a quick five-minute gap after 45 minutes in each half) and Jordan Gibson was the best player on the pitch as he scored twice, looked sharp and instinctive with getting his shots off quickly and absolutely shone in the second period when Rovers threatened to run riot.

Stamford aren’t a bad team for Step 3 level. They play in the Southern Premier League (Central Division) being just a bit too far south of the boundary that would put them in the Northern Premier League and it’s a division which consists of teams such as Redditch United, Telford United, AFC Sudbury and Leiston and was won by Needham Market (near Ipswich) last season who bizarrely now go into the National League North, whilst the Daniels finished in 7th position - just three points off the Play-Off spots.

They’ve got some decent players. Harry Vince who wore the No.3 shirt is a player I’ve always admired for his graft, effort and quality on the ball (seen that a few times) stemming as far back to his days at Boston United where he came through the ranks when Adam Murray was manager there, followed by his stint at Matlock Town. Always keeping an eye on his career and good to see him as one of the main men and a big part of what this Stamford team is all about.

Now in his mid-20s, Vinny was named in Stamford first half’s XI and in that spell, it was quite an even contest in all honesty; Rovers looking neat and tidy on the ball at times in the sky blue away kit which looks decent and contrasts well against the black shorts - and showing the quality and movement you’d expect from an EFL team, whereas Stamford had a lot of chances but couldn’t put any away! Where’s the facepalm emoji!

There was just the one goal up to half-time came around a quarter-of-an-hour in when Billy Sharp rolled back the years and scored the exact type of goal he’s made his career from by leaping well inside the six-yard box and heading the ball home from a Luke Molyneux cross.

Thereafter up to the interval, Stamford were decent and performed reasonably well and were unlucky not to get an equaliser to show for their efforts.

Their No.7, who I think was called Jack Holmes and was signed last month from Halesowen Town, and playing on the right-wing gave Jack Senior (at LWB for Donny) a torrid time with the exception of one instance where Senior slid in to nip the ball off his toes. Holmes was direct, loved to take on (and beat) his man and got in-behind on the wing a few times which caused problems but infront of goal the Daniels lacked a cutting edge as chances went begging. Graham Drury clearly wasn’t happy with the finishing when he gathered his team in a huddle at the side of the pitch after 45 minutes because as good as his team might have been playing, he knew they’d squandered too many chances and ought to have been level.

In the second half, things were swapped about entirely.

Rovers fielded a completely different XI which saw Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Jordan Gibson and a few others make their debuts, Stamford shuffled their pack likewise - with one familiar face being Ethan Young who did his YTS scholarship at Scunthorpe United, and pretty much from the outset, Grant McCann’s new-look XI seemed way too strong and a fair scoreline in the end would have been 5-0 or 6-0.

Jordan Gibson immediately looked a major threat on the left; quick-footed, sharp and a bundle of energy and twice within a couple of minutes he struck the post with strikes from outside the box which were purely instinctive.

Eventually when a goal did finally come it was scored by Kyle Hurst who finished well to make it 2-0 and with Rovers well on top, Jordan Gibson then finally got a goal his performance merited when he spun well and finished tidily from inside the box, before then adding another in the final 15 minutes (after the weird mini-break) when Ethan Young’s pass was intercepted and subsequently punished.

On another night in the Lincolnshire sunset, Rovers might have had more as other chances went begging in that second period too but results in pre-season aren’t important, and if Stamford need comfort, they can find it from how they played in that first half - good on the ball, doing decent and more than holding their own, but just needing a better cutting edge when it came to chances.

The big takeaway from the night will be Jordan Gibson’s performance because he looked class and showed a bit of everything you’d want.

Amongst the young lads who featured for Donny, Will Flint looks ‘big’ for his relatively young age (something that will be beneficial to him when it comes to clubs looking at him for loans which will inevitably happen in the next few months) and he competed alright in the first half in a midfield position. He needed more around him in a few instances where things were a bit ‘jagged’ and untidy with turnovers (notably in one instance where George Broadbent won and lost it in the space of 10 seconds) but individually he held his own and did alright. And in the second half, Sam Brown was very neat and tidy on the ball - moved it well, got praise for his performance off his own team-mates (notably Tom Nixon was encouraging him a few times) and when his out-of-possession game marries up with his ability on the ball then he’s going to be an alright player. That’s the bit he has to improve right now. It will come because he’s still right at the young end of the scale and just about to enter the second year of his YT scholarship, so he’s got time on his side - and the more games he gets against senior opposition is where he’ll do most of his learning. So it’s a good game for him to be involved in and if you put 100 games on his name and move 2-3 years down the line, you can see the talent that is there.

Other than that… good to catch up with Ethan Young before kick-off; been way too long and good to see you involved mate, even if it was in Stamford’s more difficult half in the game. Fingers crossed you get the game-time you’ll want this season after the ‘stop-start’ nature of last year and I’ll pop to another game if the opportunity arises at some point during the next 10 months or so.

And when I do next go to a game, I’ll try and avoid tripping up, doing a 3.5 summersault that wouldn’t look out of place at the Olympics and then landing on my knee/tit/chin, because gravity won that argument. And it’s quite painful.