Saturday 13th September, Ashton Gate, Sky Bet League One.
Doncaster Rovers take to the road once again on yet another long away trip, looking to keep their fantastic form away from the Keepmoat Stadium going.Rovers – who had a better away record than home in the 2012/13 season, when they won the League 1 title – have started this campaign in a similar fashion with 4 wins from 4 away and 0 from 3 on their own patch.
Bristol City, meanwhile, have been consistent in all forms and find themselves nicely placed in second position, behind Peterborough United, after six matches.
Ex Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cotterill, has returned to his native South West where he was so successful with Cheltenham Town and has yet to see his Robins lose a league game.
Rovers have only ever recorded two victories at Ashton Gate, once in November 1983 and then again in March 2010.
The latter provided a seven goal thriller in which Rovers stunned their Championship opponents and a man of the match performance from loanee Jay Emmanuel Thomas saw all four corners of the ground applaud the charismatic striker.
The aptly nicknamed ‘JET’, who now plies his trade with City, got the visitors off to a lightning quick start when he netted inside 120 seconds.
Robins defender Bradley Orr notched his first of the afternoon and momentarily gave Gary Johnson’s men parity. A goal on twelve minutes from Billy Sharp handed Rovers the initiative, before Orr scored again just three minutes later to complete a bizarre opening quarter of an hour containing four goals!
Sharp registered his second, and Rovers’ third, of the afternoon on 34 minutes before Emmanuel Thomas sent Rovers in to the break with a healthy 4-2 lead.
The second half, somewhat inevitably, couldn’t match the first half for end to end football and all round breathlessness and Orr put through his own net to complete an unenviable hat-trick, symptomatic of a cracker.
Team News:
Bristol City – No fresh injury concerns or suspensions
Rovers – Curtis Main is still out with a knee problem. Rovers expect to welcome Dean Furman back from international duty with South Africa.
Last Meeting (21 Jan 2012):
Bristol City 2 (Wood, 26; Cisse, 31)
Doncaster Rovers 1 (Diouf, 75)
Sky Bet Championship
Ashton Gate
14951
BCFC - D James, R Foster, C Skuse (B Pitman, 66), L Nyatanga, L Carey, N Kilkenny, K Cisse, A Adomah, Y Bolasie (J Wilson, 83), S Pearson, C Wood (J Stead, 76)
DRFC - D Button, J O'Connor, T Spurr, S Hird, H Beye (s/o 32), S Gillett (K Bennett, 78), J Coppinger (J Oster, 19), J Hayter (A Lockwood, 32), B Stock, B Sharp, E Diouf
Head to head (at Bristol)
Robins – 13
Rovers – 2
Draws – 4
Fancy a flutter? Sky Bet Odds: City 5/6; Draw 5/2; Rovers 100/30.
Join Tom Biltcliffe and Darren Neagle on Rovers Player from 2:45pm.