Charlton Athletic 1 Doncaster Rovers 3: Dickov stunned by abandoned Valley match

Doncaster manager Paul Dickov was left bemoaning the “shambolic” way in which their Sky Bet Championship game against Charlton was abandoned at The Valley.
Doncaster Rovers' Bongani Khumalo.Doncaster Rovers' Bongani Khumalo.
Doncaster Rovers' Bongani Khumalo.

Referee Lee Miller first suspended play at 3-0 to Rovers with the waterlogged Valley pitch affecting play.

Paul Keegan, who was later sent off for two yellow cards, opened the scoring in the second minute before a Chris Brown double gave the south Yorkshire side a three-goal lead all inside 22 minutes.

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But the players were taken off the pitch just before the halfhour mark, before returning and playing until the break when the match was called off.

And Rovers boss Paul Dickov said: “I’m disappointed obviously. We were playing some really good stuff, so the referee to suspend play was disappointed.

“Then 15 minutes later it was no worse. Because of the way he has done it it’s shambolic.

“As a spectacle my team were fantastic and caused problems. Charlton then started to get the ball down and pass it

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“I didn’t see one bad tackle and both sets of players deserve credit and wanted to continue.

“The referee could have let the game go on longer. I thought we were fantastic for 30 minutes. He should have let play go for as long as he could before half time - once he made the decision to take us off, he put a whole lot of pressure on himself. It’s a tough decision for him to make.

“The pleasing thing for me is the more we play the better we get. If it stands and the goals and results don’t it has to be the worse decision ever and such a contradiction. It’s something we have to look at. “

Doncaster Rovers

01 Turnbull

03 Husband

05 Jones

14 Khumalo

32 Wabara

11 Cotterill

18 Keegan

19 Wellens

26 Coppinger

09 Brown

22 Robinson

Substitutes

13 Maxted

02 Quinn

12 McCullough

04 Furman

06 Syers

07 Duffy

08 Paynter

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