Forgetting the politics , the word embarrassing has been used a lot to describe our performance . I have defended the team in the past BUT not today .
We are supposed to be a tight nit group something did not seem right today .

Discipline also how can GT say we have not got a discipline problem we have an experienced player kicking a guy on the floor then marching up to the ref like its his( the ref) fault he(JT) kicked someone .

With regards the officials , they missed the forward passes because they could not keep up with the speed of Toronto game .

With regards should they shouldn't they be in C1 . There would have been complaints if they had been fast tracked .

I really do feel for the folk that went today, I boycotted the game in my own small way because of the ridiculous situation that the CH1 clubs face against all the odds given the Toronto set up. Lord only knows what folk in Canada think. The realism for us is that we will not beat Barrow at the KM, and we may struggle at home against Keighley. Fourth place is about all we can expect.

Last year we didn't have the strength upfront to compete with the likes of Barrow. I'm sure the aim this season was to stop that happening again. The recruitment of the oldies appears to be a one season attempt to get out of the league and then regroup for the following season in the higher league should we go up. I would imagine Makali Aizue and Jamie Thackray almost certainly won't be playing in 2018.

It's extremely hard for teams like the Dons to build a young side for the future because the better players are picked off by the sides in the higher league once they show potential, especially if you don't get promoted. It's also very hard for the young players to make the transition from Under 19s to playing against experienced men. We tried to recruit youngsters last year and we failed as the quality of the youngsters wasn't good enough but retention does become an issue if they are good enough. At the moment Keiran Cross is our best youngster but he'll be vulnerable to leaving us if we don't get promoted as a Championship side might make him an offer he can't refuse.

The class gap between League One and League Two is considerable but unless you've got a budget as big as Toronto's you can't recruit all that many genuine Championship quality players. The policy for most clubs is that they have to seriously rebuild when they get promoted.

That seems to be the nature of the game these days - deal with the present season first, try to get promoted, and then rebuild if you do go up.

You naughty boycotter!

Leave the pain to us regulars! Bah!



I think you're right though, we're not going to be favourites to beat Barrow at the Keepmoat based on what we know so far. The trouble is that finishing fourth would almost certainly mean a trip to Barrow should we get to the play-off final. So winning that one would be even less likely.

This season seems to be panning out in a similar way to last season: promotion appears to be an outside hope, rather than a realistic expectation.

Just to correct you if we come 4th we would play 3rd away , 2nd v 5th . Do not mean to be pedantic but I have had a bad experience this afternoon .
I am trying hard not to go over the top with my criticism of todays performance .

I know that they are a cherry picked team of full timers, but you only had to look at them to tell they were FIT.
Big and FIT.

We looked like a team of mates who had put down jumpers for goal posts and then started a kickabout.

We were found out today.

Toronto are just getting into their stride and no doubt will pan a few sides this season.

However that score is UNACCEPTABLE considering Siddal along with some mud nearly beat them in the cup.

A dark day ....
Which will be shrugged off no doubt.

You could tell that Toronto knew we are lazy down the middle at moving up.

Everyone should be given their money back after that performance paid by the players and GT.
makes you wish i didn't have a ticket for Leeds, coz if we hadn't got them Saturday would definitely not be going to support them
after that debacle.

if GT is still here at the end of this season i won't be watching anymore.

The bloke is absolute clueless! I read some other teams forums when we appointed him and they couldn't believe us taking him on, I'm not basing this on todays result as nobody will touch Toronto this season but he must have some dirt on hally cos his loyalty to him is as baffling as his team selections! It maybe proves saying the right things and brown nosing gets you far, WAKE UP CLUB DONCASTER WERE REGRESSING NOT PROGRESSING!!!

i said he was the wrong man as soon as we announced him as coach.

Yep, it wasn't a nice experience today.

I was assuming that we win the first play-off game we'd then have to play Barrow in the final. Of course, if we finished 5th and Barrow came second, we'd face them away in the first match...

Either way, it's doesn't look very appealing! Whichever way we look at it, to go up, we're probably going to have to overcome Barrow at some point.

I must have been the only fan who thought GT was the right man for the job . Experience at Championship & C1.

Do you still think that now?

Wasn't there a rumour that we turned down Deryck fox and Graham Steadman in order to get Gary Thornton ??
I'm still waiting for his promise to sort out discipline and fitness when he started. A game plan would be good as well.

No I do not .

I thought Rhys Lovegrove was going to turn us into super athletes.

yes that was said and people said it came down to money

Do not think fitness was the main problem today .

Well they certainly looked fitter by a mile.

5 year plan anyone?
Going cheap ....

Toronto are full time athletes , they were clearly fitter , I do not doubt that.
Attitude is also a big part of the game .

Well the results made the Virtual Terrace section, thought provoking comments as ever viewtopic.php?f=2&t=604050

Well the results made the Virtual Terrace section, thought provoking comments as ever viewtopic.php?f=2&t=604050

It wont be long until were announcing 'another 5 year plan' hence my name

To be fair the five year plan announced from Club Doncaster involves the Rovers as well. I think their part in it may be a tad more optimistic than ours.

also to be fair they announced they had a 5 year plan aiming for
super league 2 yrs ago when
cookey was here. as in previous posts mentioning this, what happened to that first plan.
thrown in the waste bin by the looks which is where
the NEW 5 yr plan could well end up in 2 yrs and we start another one!

Would any of our players get into the Toronto side?
Under any circumstances?

The simple fact of the matter is we can't afford anyone with that kind of class.
Not the same as saying our lads are crap ... because we have a few gems ... well one to be honest.

We have not got the time within a five year plan to bring young players on with any continuity.

Toronto bought players that were the finished article, off the shelf so to speak.

For whatever reason we can't or won't do that.
Therefore we are not going anywhere if all we can do or afford is to sign players at league 1 level.

And that is what we are continually doing ... plus a few old hands with old legs.

I along with others continually hope for better times, but I pretty much know it is all a house of cards.

We are a steady community club that got swallowed into the larger Rovers set up.
I suggest furtherment is all wishful thinking.
But you gotta have a dream ..............................oh!, and a good TEAM!

When I think back to 2000 ... now that was a team.