Doncaster Rovers pay a high price for passing without purpose in 2-0 defeat to Walsall

Doncaster Rovers 0 Walsall 2Passing without purpose is pretty pointless.

It was a shame no one thought to tell Doncaster Rovers before their League Two game against Walsall.

Rovers had two thirds of the ball, the Saddlers scored 100 per cent of the goals and won 2-0.

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Seven games in, Danny Schofield's laudable attempts to play the game the right way have resulted in more games lost than not. If Gary McSheffrey was too pragmatic, his successor is maybe not pragmatic enough.

DISAPPOINTMENT: Doncaster Rovers coach Danny SchofieldDISAPPOINTMENT: Doncaster Rovers coach Danny Schofield
DISAPPOINTMENT: Doncaster Rovers coach Danny Schofield

Frustration at Rovers' attempts to pass the Saddlers into submission – or a coma – were already bubbling over before Danny Johnson put the tin lid on a performance which showed sometimes you can play too much "good" football.

The hosts were already a goal down when Ben Close put his foot on the ball deep in midfield and turned to play a hamless pass back to a defender.

"Gerronwi' 'it!" shouted more than one fan sick to death off 71 minutes of passing for passing's sake.

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Rovers continued to faff about until Ro-Shaun Williams was robbed and Johnson run through to take the ball past goalkeeper Jonathan Mitchell with embarrassing ease.

As he put the ball in the net, one disgruntled fan stormed past the press box to the exit. There were far more empty seats by the time the final whistle blew on a cold night.

Schofield gives the impression of having been far too busy to watch much of this World Cup and given he is a League Two manager that is no great surprise.

But it was a shame he either did not watch or learn from Spain's 2-1 defeat to Japan – a match where one team almost wore the leather off the ball with their constant passing but only managed five shots on target in return for 82 per cent of the ball. Japan just them do it and scored twice on the counter-attack.

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Walsall did not go full-on Japan just like Doncaster did not completely replicate Spain. Spain scored.

Rovers did have a shot on target in the opening half from their very last touch, it was just that Close's shot from a corner was cleared before goalkeeper Owen Evans had to deal with it.

His team had seen plenty of the ball until then without doing anything to panic a 609-strong away following.

Selected ahead of specialist centre-backs like Joseph Olowu and Adam Long who were both on the bench, the ever-versatile Tommy Rowe made himself available for passes five or ten yards higher up the pitch than his colleagues in the back three, but generally just to help it on with a short ball.

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Adam Clayton produced a lovely turn to get away from Liam Kinsella but the end result was nothing bolder than a pass to spread the ball just in front of square.

George Miller was isolated at centre-forward on his 200th senior appearance and sometimes when his colleagues got within sight, it felt like they took fright and turned back to play a safe, backwards ball.

When Williams took a goalkick from the corner of the six-yard box and kicked it square a couple of yards for Mitchell to hump downfield, it summed it up: passing for the sake of it.

That said, Walsall only put one of their four shots on target too, and Tom Knowles' shot was no trouble for Mitchell.

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Knowles – the best player on the pitch – played a lovely pass of his chest to Johnson but when the ball came back into him he almost fell onto it, steering it off target.

The irony was Doncaster restarted with a bit more urgency, only to concede after 53 minutes.

When Close hoisted a lovely ball to Clayton, who crossed for Tom Anderson to head wide, you wondered if the message had got through.

Instead what got through was Isaac Hutchinson, beating Williams easily before a cross Knowles got just the right weight of finish on to guide it inside the far post.

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Max Woltman's shot, eight yards wide from a similar distance in front of the posts, summed up his and Doncaster's malaise.

Walsall looked the more likely to score the next goal, substitute Douglas James-Taylor's curling shot deflecting out for a corner.

So it proved with the miserable second.

Kieran Agard absolutely ballooned his shot from almost touching distance of the goal when a Harrison Biggins shot was saved to him and in the second added minute Evans watched a Clayton free-kick hit the post as he thought he was shepherding it out.

Even the full-time boos felt half-hearted, it was such an uninspiring night.

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Doncaster Rovers: Mitchell; Williams, Anderson, Rowe; Knoyle, Close (Hurst 72), Clayton, Maxwell (Taylor 78); Biggins, Woltman (Agard 78); Miller. Unused substitutes: Jones, Olowu, Long, Seaman.Walsall: Evans; White, Daniels, Monthe; Bennett, Earing (Comley 84), Kinsella, Gordon; Hutchinson; Knowles (James-Taylor 61), Johnson (Williams 84). Unused substitutes: Maddox, McEntee, Cashman, Allen.Referee: S Mather (Atherton).

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