I haven't seen as many devasted Doncaster faces as I saw at the full time whistle for some time.
I don't think any Newcastle player can come out with any credit - they were diabolical. I can completely understand why Newcastle fans are unexcited by Chris Hughton getting the managerial position full time; their players looked unhappy at the prospect of facing 'little Doncaster' and perhaps gave the message before kick-off of 'we'll only need to turn up'.
On the other hand I thought we were brilliant. I can't fault anyone's performance. I thought dropping Hayter was a fantastic move and I thought we looked a lot more committed in the final third - although I do blame his replacement, Quinton Fortune, for the final goal, which I'll go on to later. Fortune's role gave us two defensive midfielders, to partner Simon Gillett, which I don't think we needed in all honesty.
In the first half particularly we were more than comfortable - it became almost arrogance as the game went on, however. The little triangles were working almost to perfection and we were stringing the ball around nicely. One slight concern was that Sharp seemed to be occupying a more wide, supporting role for Dean Shiels, which potentially confused our opponents, but I thought Shiels was a faster opposition who was more likely to exploit the space left by the poorly organised Newcastle back line.
We took the lead from a lovely worked move. Billy Sharp found himself one-on-one with Steve Harper, after another defensive mare from the Magpies, but instead of taking the greedy option of trying to score in that situation he played a beautiful, trick ball across the six-yard box, and Shiels on the left hand side of the box couldn't miss. It was an easy goal, to cap an easy performance.
In the second half, unfortunately, we took our foot off the peddle. When everything, bar some dubious linesmaning from the assistant referee, was going our way. I think there was many times in that match, particularly one decision when Sharp was deeper than his marker when the ball was kicked, and the linesman flagged for offside.
No doubt Hughton's half time team talk was quite good though. If that is a positive from a Newcastle point of view. Although I still don't think Newcastle were brilliant, they found an 'inner self' from the second half, which although they went more direct, and reminded me of the way Sheffield United tried to come back at us after trailing several weeks ago. They did spend longer in our half than we did in there's. Although I didn't really think at any point, until it happened that they were going to score. Three 'open goals' were missed by United.
Kevin Nolan's shot (that isn't shown in the above highlights) was probably the worse of the lot. From about two yards out he managed to trick Neil Sullivan, almost like a penalty, to dive the wrong way. Then Nolan managed to fluff it wide. It made me laugh to be honest. It's exactly how not to take your chances.
In fairness Newcastle did continue to try and press as Doncaster began to weaken. Newcastle scored an equaliser when a lovely cross was met by Andy Caroll who struck a fantastic half volley beyond Neil Sullivan. If I'm going to give anyone the blame, unfortunately its got to be James O'Connor. He's gradually becoming the player he has been since he joined the club, but a lack of concentration, allowed Caroll to get beyond him and slot the ball across the goal.
We had a shout for handball on the edge of the box, which looked almost the same as what had been given against Billy Sharp a few minutes earlier. It clearly bounced up against his arm, but the referee decided to make a decision against Sharp but not against the Newcastle defender - which is hardly a level playing field.
We won a penalty with 15 minutes to go, which would have sent us 2-1 up and probably won us the game. It was a penalty, again you can see it on the highlights at the top of the page. Martin Woods was stuck in whether to place it or go for power. The eventual result was that he sent it miles wide. I didn't have any grudges about him taking it, as he scored his last one; against Spurs in August.
Maybe from that you could say it wasn't our day. United then scored with a long range effort to silence their own doubters, who booed them off at half time. As I said, if anyone is to blame it was Fortune. By now Gillett had been substituted as we went more attacking for the win. But Nolan wasn't closed down by our defensive midfielder. Fortune wasn't close enough to the former Bolton man, forcing O'Connor to have to step in. It was quite lucky going in off the post. But it was a very nice goal but it ruined a very positive display from the Rovers.
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