Forest face Doncaster Rovers tomorrow in the last ever fixture to be played at Belle Vue (aka Earth Stadium) where we’ve enjoyed a pretty good past record – as recently as last year, well, this year in March, we beat them 2-1 in this fixture – although probably our most spectacular result there came in 1997/1998 when we demolished them 8-0 at Belle Vue in the League Cup – a stark reminder of our status now we’re meeting them in the league for the second year running!
Donny are unbeaten in their last six games; racking up four wins and two draws – although scoring only seven and letting in one, it would seem that their run of form is as much down to defensive miserlyness as goal-scoring panache. Whilst Forest are on a rather shaky run in general, away form isn’t too bad with the AFC Bournemouth game a notable blip on the horizon – but recent memories of a rather shameful showing against Leyton Orient will loom large in the minds of most fans; hopefully the players will be keen to put that right at the first opportunity.
Doncaster have no injury fears, and haven’t played a competitive game for more than a week – so will be fighting fit and raring to go, and with a bit of luck they’ll be a little rusty on match practice – we’ll need to watch out for loanee Jonathan Forte (on loan from Sheffield United) and given an ex-Stag scored against us last week, perhaps we should also keep an eye out for ex-Magpie Paul Heffernan tomorrow who I’m sure will love to get one over on us. Sean Thornton is the other name that stands out from the squad in midfield.
The Reds have doubts over John Curtis who picked up an ankle injury against Orient at the weekend; the probable replacement would be the versatile James Perch who lately lost his place in midfield to Gary Holt; which is a shame really, as I prefer Perchy in the middle with Clingan, and I really rate the contribution Curtis makes too. But better that than pull Kris Commons back into the left midfield role, because of his lack of desire/willingness/capability to get back and defend. Tyson I’m sure will be keen to end his goal drought of one game (heh), and it’s high time we saw some goalscoring action from Junior Agogo should he feature following his return from injury.
It’s going to be a tough game; Doncaster don’t let in many goals – and our defence isn’t as mean as it once was earlier in the season – I can see this being a tough and close game, and don’t feel particularly confident that it will be close in our favour. Certainly Donny will want to leave Belle Vue with a bang, we’re on shaky form when you factor in Bournemouth and Orient, and they do owe us one looking at past meetings – but having said that, we do play better against the better teams in the league, and when Forest have disappointed us with a result they have, typically, followed it up with a good one – alas the latest time it was just a couple of good results before the next poor one, though.
Filed under: Matches
