Doncaster Rovers (Home) 24.09.2025

It was a much changed side that Thomas Frank out out to face the League One side, with the Yorkshire side being mainly at full strength and for the first couple of minutes, Doncaster threatened to strike first.  A half-cleared cross fell for Middleton to volley, but captain Pedro Porro blocked it before it could reach Antonin Kinsky in the Tottenham goal with just 42 seconds on the clock.  Another good looking break was defended in the Spurs box before Wilson Odobert and Xavi Simons worked the ball well down the left and Wilson flashed a low cross to the near post that was met by Mathys Tel, but stabbed wide of it.  Spurs were breaking on Doncaster at pace and when Brennan Johnson got away on the left his low ball across the penalty area was totally missed by Tel with a defender sliding in front of him.  The ball was cleared for a throw-in that Kevin Danso took long, causing the ball to be cleared to Xavi, who fired a shot over the bar.

A Rovers cross from the left went all the way through to the far side of the area, where Damola Ajayi lifted the ball into the middle and Olusanya had a free header, but got it all wrong and headed it five yards wide with 10 minutes gone.  It proved to be costly.  Johnson took a cross-field pass from Djed Spence and played a one-two with Archie Gray to give him space behind the left back to cross and the keeper just got a touch on it to take it away from Tel coming in behind him.  Lawlor tried to psyche out Joao Palhinha as they waited for a Danso throw to be launched into the box.  It was headed out for a corner at the near post, but when that was played into the box by Simons, the goalkeeper had psyched himself out, as he got a dreadful punch on the ball that Grehan had to nod it away at the far post, as it looked as though it might go in, but only going as far as the penalty spot, where Palhinha threw himself into an overhead kick that took the ball into the net past Grehan’s head.    

Less than two minutes later, Spurs worked the ball down the left with Djed giving Odobert a chance to run at Nixon, dazzling him with step-overs and again firing in a cross that the keeper spectacularly failed to cut out and it compromised his centre-half behind him, with McGrath desperately trying to clear the ball but was only able to smash it into his own net. 

Bailey picked up a yellow card for his second offence of being beaten by Xavi and having to pull him down, this time injuring the winger’s ankle.  A dangerous looking break down the Doncaster left was easily picked off in the middle of the box by Spence and Xavi played the ball around the corner as Nixon crudely took him out with a worse tackle than Bailey’s two.  The ref played on with Djed leaving Nixon treading water, but after knocking the ball about in the opposition half, Odobert hit a shot that went too high.

Around the middle of the half, both sides were making unforced efforts to concede possession.  When Spurs found Archie wide on the right, Mathys Tel took the ball into the right-hand corner of the box before unleashing a powerful drive that Lawlor beat away at his near post for a corner.  Bentancur made a run to lose his marker who was more intent on blocking him than tracking him and his header went across goal where Grehan toed the ball away on the line,  In keeping with his inept performance, Madley gave a goal-kick.

When Gray was unceremoniously hauled down the free kick was played to the left where Kevin Danso rose to head down and the ball dropped for Archie to look to steer the ball into the opposite side of the goal with his right foot, but the keeper got down to push it wide for a corner.  In winning the header, Kevin had got a cut above his eye and had to leave the pitch, but Bentancur flicked the ball on from the set-piece, Tell swung a leg at it and it was blocked then Xavi drove in a shot that was blocked.  When the ball was cleared for a throw, two red and white hooped players were on the deck. 

Archie Gray shrugged off three rough challenges in midfield to give Xavi the chance to exchange passes with Odobert in the box and Simons was tackled by Nixon for another corner.  Pedro was the recipient of the corner played back outside the box and his shot was blocked and then the skipper popped up on the right to drive in a cross that took a deflection forcing Lawlor to get behind it at the foot of his near post.  Given a first team outing, Kinsky was probably hoping to show what he could do, but had a quiet time of it until the 39th minute when Middleton stood up a cross to the middle of the box and his volley looked destined for the bottom right corner of Toni’s goal until he dived down to his right to get a good hand on the ball taking in onto the post.

Five minutes before the break, Bentancur lifted a ball over the Doncaster defence and Xavi was onto it, with Nixon all over him, bringing him down on the edge of the box with some sort of challenge from behind.  Another hometown decision by Madley.  A corner was played to Porro again, then back to Xavi before lining up a shot from Pedro that caused the keeper to push it wide for another corner.  The same move ended with Porro’s shot being blocked.  Then a long throw got to Rodrigo, who flicked a heel at it and took the ball a yard wide of the Rovers goal.

Two minutes into the second half, Middleton made the worst foul of the match with a lunge at Tel from behind when he out-paced him that took his ankles away because it was the only way that the Doncaster player could stop him, but only a free-kick resulted and not a yellow card, even though he was endangering Mathys’ safety with a reckless tackle.  You can’t make excuses for the gap in ability in matches like this and that is always the risk of playing senior players.  The Tamworth captain said in an interview the other day that you think you that non-league players can match those from the Premier League, but he said Bissouma just handed him off and it felt like he had been hit by a truck.  It works the other way around too, with lower league players not being good enough to make a clean tackle, so could really end up hurting someone.  By letting Middleton escape punishment for it, he was ready to be able to go and do it again.  Compared to the booking for Porro towards the end of the 90 for “simulation” when he just ran into the box and a Doncaster defender put his body in the way with Pedro anticipating the contact, you actually wonder what the referee imagines is happening !

Rovers were better after the break, but rarely looked like scoring, as Spurs took their foot off the pedal.  They had no doubt been urged to put in a performance in the second period, but the worrying thing from our point of view was the inability to ram home our technical superiority.  Bailey hit Palhinha’s clearing header on the volley and it dipped just as it reached Kinsky, but the Czech keeper was behind it.  Middleton then pulled back Gray’s shirt as he took a back-heel from Porro in the Spurs box and seeing as how this was his second offence, it was a surprise that unlike Bailey, he didn’t get booked.

Olusanya had an opportunity when he got into the box, only to slice horribly wide, but was pulled back for a foul on Palhinha anyway.  Grehan was the next to clog Simons, with a heavy tackle having been turned by the Dutchman, but Tottenham were failing to make any meaningful link-up down the left wing in this half, as moves broke down too easily.

On the hour, Odobert and Simons were given a break, with Richarlison and Bergvall coming off the bench, meanwhile Spurs loanee Damola Ajayi was substituted after a lively display that shows his adaptation to senior football.  Senior left his studs in Richi’s ankles and again, both sides were giving the ball away needlessly.  Molyneux tried to take Djed on the outside, but the Spurs defender stood his ground and eased the Doncaster sub off the pitch in his inimitable fashion.  Tel worked the ball across field after attracting three red and white shirts towards him and then Porro’s ball in behind the left back gave Johnson the run on him.  He pulled the ball back towards the waiting Tel just ahead of the penalty spot, but he missed the ball which was pulled back a little behind him.

Danso was outstanding in the last fifteen minutes, despite having to wear a headband to cover his stitches, with his determined interceptions preventing them moving forward.  However, when Danso stretched a leg to knock the ball away from Hanlon on the edge of the box, the referee gave a high foot, even though the Rovers sub ducked his head quite low.  The ref explained to both captains, but Kevin’s boot was waist high at best and made no contact with the player, so the only reason it could have been given as a free-kick was the contact he made with Hanlon after he had cleared the ball.  Middleton lined it up and hit it left footed into the side-netting at the near post with Toni static.  With the movement of the net, the away fans behind the goal thought it was in, but then they had as skewed a view of the match as the referee. 

Destiny Udogie replaced Spence and Djed had to go off in front of the away section, walking the walk past them rather than circumnavigating the pitch in front of the Spurs fans.  He loved it !  Spurs got the ball forward and Archie won a good duel after a short ball from Lucas and then Gray’s cross picked out Bergvall, with the ball coming off his head sideways before it was cleared to Rodrigo.  His first-time shot was dig into the ground and squirted well wide of the goal.  Ten minutes from time, Johnson roared away from Senior and measured his low ball across goal, but it was just too far ahead of Richarlison and a corner resulted.  Luces swung it in right under the bar, but this time Lawlor dealt with it.

With five minutes left, Thomas Frank made the popular decision to bring on Luca Williams-Barnett for Tel on the left wing.  The 16 year old has been starring in the under-18s and this season in the Under-21s and with the game almost won, it was a nice move to give him a taste of first-team football.  His first touch came off his knee and he couldn’t chase it down, his second looked to send Bergvall through, but the Swede had halted his run and his third won a duel, with the ball left stationary, while Doncaster players ran away from it.  He knocked it wide to Destiny, whose low cross was touched on by Brannan at the near post, popping up for Lucas to bury a volley at the back stick.  It would have been a nice goal had Johnson not been offside. 

With the away fans questioning how good Tottenham were because it was only 2-0, they got their answer three minutes into added time.  Nixon went down softly under a tackle from Udogie and took the free-kick quickly, with the ball being presented to Lucas Bergvall in space.  He picked out an instant through ball from his own half that sliced through the middle of the defence and sent Brennan Johnson clear to take the ball into the box and dink it over the keeper, who had spread himself at his feet.  It was Johnson again and while his second half contributions had been limited to a couple of blistering runs down the right, he has the uncanny knack of being in the right place at the right time.  It was the last kick of the match.

At times in the first half, Doncaster played some good passes, but there was an awful lot of rubbish stuff that they displayed in their performance.  At one point in the second half, we were dragged down to their level, where the hectic nature of the game brought misplaced passes and it made Rovers look adequate.  While the 3-0 win was welcome, especially another clean sheet with a much changed defence, some members of the crowd felt that we should have made more of the ball in the second half.

Their fans had a great night out, singing and experiencing a truly magnificent stadium, although I feel that Doncaster must have changed dramatically over the last few years since I visited there, as the Donny supporters who were singing that they couldn’t wait to get back there as Tottenham wasn’t a very nice area.  Perhaps their view is very Yorkshire-centric.  It appeared from the erratic decisions that he made that it was certainly the case for referee Madley.  Hailing from that county, his lower league bias shone through, handing numerous free-kicks to Doncaster, with a reckless attitude to tackles that were dangerous when the red and white hoops committed them.  The linesman with the yellow flag also had problems, without VAR, some dodgy offsides were allowed to go for Doncaster.

So, through without too much worry and into the next round at St. James’ Park, unfortunately, a ground that we haven’t had much joy at in recent years.

• Luca Williams-Barnett made his debut, becoming the youngest Spurs player to appear in the League Cup (16 years 11 months 24 days) and he also became the 900th player to represent the club.