Doncaster Rovers

Saturday’s fixture at the Lamex will be the 12th meeting between the two sides with Rovers looking to extend their unbeaten away run to 12 games in the League and remain unbeaten in 2013. 

Stevenage have also enjoyed a rich vein of form away from home this season winning 8 and drawing 2 games on the road, the second best away record in the league behind Rovers.

Stevenage’s home record has a more modest look however; with the 16th best points total in the league on their home pitch, Winning just 3 games and drawing 5 at the Lamex Stadium (Formerly Broadhall Way).

Despite 5 of the last 11 meetings between the clubs ending in a 0-0 draw, Saturday’s fixture promises goals from a cursory glance at the stats from this season. Doncaster boast the second highest number of goals scored on the road in the league behind Coventry with 23 goals, where Stevenage have the third highest number of goals conceded at home with 22 goals shipped at the Lamex this season.

Doncaster are coming off 4 games unbeaten with 3 wins and a draw, the draw coming against Sheffield United at home. Stevenage have endured a tough recent schedule snapping a 3 game losing streak with a 2-1 away win at Gresty Road against mid table Crewe Alexandra last time out.

Saturday will be the first game under the stewardship of Rob Jones and Brian Flynn as caretaker managers. Rovers will be looking to open up a bigger gap on 3rd placed Sheffield United who are 3 points behind on 47 points; meanwhile, 9th place Stevenage are one win away from a playoff spot, just 2 points behind Mk Dons in 6th and will be looking to bridge the gap this weekend as they chase another back to back promotion.

Before meeting on 22nd September 2012 for the first time in the football league at the Keepmoat; the game ending in a 1-1 draw, the two side’s only previous history saw them meet on 10 occasions in the football conference.

The short history of the two sides has seen Stevenage enjoy the larger share of the spoils winning three of the previous 11 games with 6 draws. Rovers two victories came in the 01/02 season with a 2-0 win at the former Belle Vue ground and in the following season at Broadhall Way winning 3-2.

Since their last meeting in the same season, both sides have had a meteoric rise into the football league. While Doncaster moved up through the leagues culminating in a 4 year stay in the Championship; before relegation back to League One in the 2011/12 season, Stevenage spent 7 more seasons in the Conference before finally making their Football league debut in 2010. Unexpected back to back promotions; the latter from 6th place followed, with Stevenage beating Torquay United in the League Two playoff final in 2011 to reach the third tier of the football league for the first time in their history.

Stevenage are nicknamed ‘The Boro’ although they are not to be confused with Middlesbrough FC; Stevenage Chairman Phil Wallace dropped the name Stevenage Borough in June 2010 to become Stevenage FC.

Rovers - 1 - Brown (79mins)

Stevenage - 1 - Risser (16mins)

Rovers Team – (Woods, Quinn, Jones, McCombe, Spurr, Syers, Woods, Keegan, Bennett, Brown, Cotterill; Subs, Maxted, Husband, Martis, Blake, Hume, Harper)

Stevenage Team – (Day, Commingues, Roberts, Ashton, Gray, Risser, Akins, Dunne, Grant, Morais, Haber; Subs, Arnold, Tansey, Freeman, Charles, Lopez, N’Gala)

Martin Woods is the only injury concern for the game, however Billy Paynter will miss the game as he serves the second of a three match suspension. 

The Clubhouse, behind the South Stand has proved popular with both home and away supporters. There are few pubs close to the ground, but visitors advise that the majority of pubs in the town centre are “away friendly.” The Mutual Friend and Old Forge pubs have also been the subject of good reports. En route to the town centre, these pubs are on the roads that pass either side of the stadium.

Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow.

Max – 2oC

Min – 1oC

No scheduled roadwork, please leave plenty of time for your journey.

Rovers Player
Coverage of Stevenage FC v Doncaster Rovers in npower League 1 on Saturday 12th January 2013 from Braodhall Way, will be live and exclusive on Rovers Player from 2:45pm. Don’t miss a kick!