OPPONENTS: Doncaster Rovers Football Club
MANAGER: Darren Ferguson
NICKNAME: Donny or The Rovers
LEAGUE POSITION: 18th
THE JOURNEY: Fratton Park to Keepmoat Stadium – If the roads are quiet, you’d manage the 233 mile journey in around 4 hours.
LAST TIME OUT:
* Pompey got back to back wins in League One for the first time since March 2013 after their 2-0 win at home to MK Dons on Saturday. Ollie Hawkins was on hand to turn in two crosses in the first half.
* Doncaster fell to a 1-0 defeat away to Charlton after an early goal. They saw plenty of the ball but were unable to find the net, hitting the crossbar in the process.
POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey move up to 8th in the table after two wins and two clean sheets in a week. Only 3 points separate 8 teams between 6th and 13th.
* The last time Pompey won 3 games in a row in the ‘third flight’ of English football was back in May 1983 when they beat Southend, Walsall and Plymouth to clinch the then Division 3 title. 34 years on and all 4 teams are back in the same league.
* Portsmouth have conceded less shots on and off target away from home than any other team in the league.
* Christian Burgess finally clocked up his 100th appearance against MK Dons after missing the previous 3 games with an injury. He joins Kyle Bennett, Gareth Evans and Conor Chaplin in the 100 club.
* Top Scorer: Pitman (9), Hawkins (3), Chaplin/Lowe/Kennedy/(2)
DONCASTER STATS:
* Doncaster needed one win from their last 4 games last season to finish as Champions. 4 straight losses combined with Pompey’s run in meant they ended up getting promoted in 3rd place.
* Donny have had a shaky start to this season, picking up just 12 points in 13 games, only outside the relegation places on goal difference.
* Dating back to last season, Rovers have only won 3 of their last 18 games, tasting defeat in 11 of them.
* No team in League One have won less free kicks this season than Doncaster. They have won 117 free kicks in 13 games, working out at 9 per games.
* Top Scorers: John Marquis (5), Alfie May & Ben Whiteman (3)
HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of Pompeyrama.com):
* Pompey have butted heads with Doncaster 18 times since WWII, with the Blues winning 10 and Donny winning 5.
* The teams played twice last season with Donny taking 6 points off Pompey, but still missed out on the Championship by 2 points after collapsing in the home straight.
* The last meeting at the Keepmoat was at the beginning of the year and was televised on Sky. Former Blue John Marquis was on had to score twice in their 3-1 win, with Tommy Rowe getting the third to put them 10 points clear of Pompey.
PLAYED FOR US/PLAYED FOR THEM/SCUMMER WATCH
* John Marquis – The danger man, made only 6 appearances for Pompey and failed to make a mark. He had 6 other loan spells before signing for Doncaster and finally finding his feet. Marquis finished as joint top scorer in League Two last season, netting 26 times in total.
* Milan Lalkovic – Has missed most of the season through injury, but Pompey’s Slovakia winger spent a few months at Donny as a 17 year old on loan from Chelsea. He played half a dozen games there.
* Curtis Main – They may have forgot about Lalkovic, but I doubt they’ll have forgotten Main. He spent 2 seasons there, scoring 11 times in 58 games before being sent on loan and finally sold to Pompey.
* Kyle Bennett – Spent the best part of his career at Doncaster. Bennett joined Donny as a 20 year old and went on to spend the next 4 years playing in red and white. All in all he played 136 games for Donny, netting 16 times before Paul Cook made him his first signing for Pompey.
* Niall Mason – Barely worth mentioning, but he did spend 3 years at the Scumcademy in his teenage years.
ONE TO WATCH:
* John Marquis – Has to be, doesn’t it? The 25 year old from Lewisham has scored more goals in his year and a bit at Doncaster than he did in the previous 7 years. 26 goals last season, top of the pile in League Two and he’s already got 5 this season as well. He’s a handful with the ball at his feet or in the air, and like many he enjoys playing against his old team, scoring 3 goals against us last season.
PREDICTION:
* Is this the start of a run? We have finally put 2 wins together, despite not playing as well as we could have. Heads would have dropped when Pitman was ruled out but without him we have become even more clinical in front of goal. With players starting to return to the fold, Burgess on Saturday, Lalkovic and Chaplin possibly here and Pitman just a few weeks away, the team is finally gelling and we’re moving forward with cautious optimism. I’m going for another classic away win, scrappy at times but Bennett on hand to score the only goal in the second half. 1-0 Pompey.
NEXT 5 GAMES:
Sat 21st Oct – Blackburn (A) – League One
Sat 28th Oct – Bradford (H) – League One
Sat 4th Nov – TBA (?) – FA Cup 1st Round
Tue 7th Nov – Charlton (A) – Checkatrade Trophy
Sat 11th Nov – Blackpool (A) – League One
FRIPPY’S TEASER:
Doncaster were one of only two teams to do the double over Pompey last season, who were the other team? (No cheating!)
PUP
Written by PompeyFrippy and originally posted in the forum.
Follow @VitalPortsmouth.
2017-18 Prediction League – October
Doncaster (a) – Tuesday 17th October 2017 – click here.
Blackburn (a) – Saturday 21st October 2017 – click here.
Bradford (h) – Saturday 28th October 2017 – click here.
