Doncaster 1 Bristol City 3: Rovers suffer setback to play-off ambitions

Back on January 13, the table-topping Robins inflicted a 2-0 
FA Cup third-round replay defeat upon Rovers at Ashton Gate, to dash their hopes of booking a lucrative televised home tie with West Ham, which would have been worth over £300,000.

While that deflating loss ended Rovers’ journey in one competition, opportunity still knocks in their quest to earn a ticket to the end-of-season League One play-off lottery in May.

But in terms of making a bold head-turning statement against the side widely perceived to be the best in the division – and with probably the biggest budget – Rovers could not raise the bar.

Rovers may have laid down a significant League One marker in triumphing at Swindon Town just before Christmas, but doing it once more against another West Country promotion chaser proved another thing entirely.

Paul Dickov took consolation in Rovers’ performance in that unfortunate cup loss in Bristol, which he felt merited better.

But last night belonged to the visitors, despite being rattled for parts of the second half after Dickov rolled the dice at half-time and threw on Curtis Main and Uche Ikpeazu to support Nathan Tyson with Rovers trailing 2-0.

A stunner from Main shortly before the hour handed Rovers a lifeline before Aaron Wilbraham’s strike on 69 minutes ended the hosts’ challenge just when it was starting to look interesting.

It secured a third win in four for Bristol City against Rovers this term and maintained their unbeaten run against them, and while Steve Cotterill’s side look certainties for promotion, Rovers have several hills to climb before their play-off mission is achieved.

The gradient got a little steeper last night, with Dickov’s troops one of a triumvirate of White Rose clubs seeking to successfully traverse a top-six route to the Championship.

Bristol City may have been reeling after trailing 3-0 after 26 minutes en route to a 3-2 loss at Colchester on Saturday, but normal service was resumed last night in what has been a distinguished season.

After their travails in Essex, they were able to savour a 2-0 interval lead at the Keepmoat against hosts who failed to trouble them.

With Rovers playing a five-man midfield, the onus was very much on them to support lone frontman Tyson, but the semblance of threat was minimal.

Rovers carved out a mere two half-chances, with Dean Furman the recipient of some ingenuity from Richie Wellens.

On the first occasion, the South African captain could not get a clean connection when well placed before being denied by a terrific block from Aden Flint.

Otherwise, it was Bristol’s half with their opener arriving just 10 minutes in when a throughball from Wilbraham ricocheted into the path of Luke Freeman, who slotted the ball underneath Stephen Bywater after racing clear.

It represented the perfect start for the visitors, able to drop deep to protect their gains, while possessing a threat on the counter-attack in Kieran Agard.

It was the ex-Rotherham United man who drew an injudicious lunge in the box from Andy Butler on 33 minutes with Stuart Attwell showing no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Greg Cunningham, whose flicked header had almost doubled the lead seven minutes earlier, was this time more successful, powering home a penalty to Bywater’s left.

Dickov made two attacking changes at the break and it yielded a dividend on 57 minutes when Main’s strike flew past Frank Fielding and into the net off the underside of the bar, the striker’s eighth goal of the season.

Reece Wabara then saw his 
effort fly over, as Rovers started 
to harass the visiting defence.

But a sloppily-conceded third goal by Rovers ended any meaningful hopes of getting something from the contest.

The home defence failed to cut out Cunningham’s cross on the left and Wilbraham lashed the ball home.

The big forward was the centre of attention for a different reason 19 minutes from time when he felled Wabara with an ugly challenge, the prelude to a heated fracas involving both sets of players and rival benches.

Calm was eventually restored, with Wilbraham somewhat fortunate to escape with just a yellow card.

Doncaster Rovers: Bywater; Wabara, McCombe, Butler, Stevens; Bennett (Ikpeazu 45), Furman, Keegan (Razak 76), Wellens, Forrester (Main 45); Tyson. Unused substitutes: Marosi, McCullough, Robinson, Evina.

Bristol City: Fielding; Ayling, Flint, Williams; Little, Pack, K Smith, Freeman (Wagstaff 90), Cunningham; Agard (Emmanuel-Thomas 90), Wilbraham (M Smith 89). Unused substitutes: Richards, Tavernier, Bryan, Elliott.

Referee: S Attwell (Warwickshire).