Doncaster ride their luck before claiming dramatic point
DONCASTER Rovers manager Darren Ferguson’s memories of Glanford Park will be somewhat more pleasurable this morning than they had been.
Over the years, it has been a venue that has proved pretty hospitable to Doncaster Rovers, although Ferguson would have been forgiven for not paying much attention to the history books ahead of last night.
The Scot professed to feeling decidedly sore still after casting his mind back to Rovers’ previous visit, an atrocious 2-0 loss in March 2016 during the club’s ugly freefall to relegation.
It was an evening that Ferguson labelled as ‘horrible’.
Last night will have at least applied some balm as Rovers’ fans were left to savour another positive result in this corner of North Lincolnshire, where they have been beaten just twice in their 15 visits.
Hero of the night for Rovers was unquestionably young striker Alfie Beestin, whose thumping header in the sixth minute of stoppage-time following Tyler Garratt’s centre earned Rovers the most dramatic of derby points.
It was a draw that their overall performance barely deserved, although the ecstatic celebrations of their sizeable visiting contingent, including a couple of dozen fans who invaded the pitch, suggested they did not care a jot.
Beestin’s strike – just his second in professional football – helped spare the blushes of Rovers goalkeeper Ian Lawlor, whose comedic third-minute blooper looked like settling the contest.
His fresh-air clearance after racing out on goal was the sort of moment all goalkeepers dread and left Tom Hopper with a gift in front of an unguarded net.
Rovers rode their luck somewhat, with Lawlor having several other anxious moments on a night when a second goal stubbornly refused to go in for the Iron. But their late pressure on a difficult night in which the defensive experience of Andy Butler – set to be out for the season – was badly missed and Mathieu Baudry left the fray early on with a hamstring injury, suggested that they were not going to surrender their sevenmatch unbeaten run without a fight.
Fielding a fluid 3-4-1-2 formation, the hosts’ clever movement and intensity caused Rovers no end of problems in the first half, with the main redeeming feature of a chastening half for Ferguson’s men being that the visitors trailed just 1-0.
Rovers look visibly winded right from the moment that Lawlor blotted his copybook and it was one-way traffic.
Doncaster struggled to contain livewire Hakeeb Adelakun in particular, with Josh Morris also posing inherent danger on the left.
The hosts were winning nearly all of the battles across the pitch.
Rovers were then hugely fortunate to escape a penalty appeal after Lawlor appeared to catch Hopper after he rounded the goalkeeper following more indecision.
Scunthorpe started the second half in the same vein with Lawlor making a key one-handed save to deny Morris before a fine last-ditch block from Joe Wright denied Hopper.
The second goal that the hosts deserved stubbornly refused to arrive with Lawlor making a fine reaction save to somehow deny Hopper again.
At the other end, some rare work for Rory Watson saw him beat away Whiteman’s fierce strike, but the home goalkeeper was powerless to prevent Rovers from having their late moment.