FT Dons 23 Skolars 22

Oldham beat Newcastle 28-20

Lucky to get the 2 points today. Some nice tries by us . London looked quicker & fitter to day .

Guy Armitage:

Plays for us v Newcastle - looks nothing out of the ordinary, barely sees the ball.



Plays against us, scores three tries & looks like London’s main attacking threat.



What is that stops us getting a performance out of a player? Could it be coaching or tactics?



We’re even starting to make Rangi Chase look ordinary. Must say he looked well off the pace today. Hope it’s still a case of regaining some match fitness but the season is running out rapidly.



Good to see Frankie Mariano back in action. Thought he had a solid game.



The Oldham match suddenly looks a whole lot tougher after today’s results & performance.

Over to Rob...

up to 16-0 we looked ok

what happened after that i don't know.

left after their last try

don't know how we've won that, the best team lost.

no chance of promotion on that performance , its got to be the coaching nothing else

Even Chase programmed to look ordinary.

my first post for ages,,,, nothing has changed ,, this is the first game Ive seen at the keepmoat since April,,, nothings changed,,, to confirm the views of "onedon" the best team lost today somebody involved with running this club needs to take a serious look at what we are producing on the pitch (third class rugby) The team STILL look like they have never even met before never mind played rugby as a team before.. This season has been a total flop from day one the super dooper DR deal with hull is a sick joke, the league table tells you exactly where we are,,, average at best. As for all the deluded fans who believe we will do well in the play offs,,,"GET REAL" the season ended today. I cant wait for 1st sep, last game at home (thats in donny not fev by the way) and then we can put this season behind us,,, as for next year ... you could not give me a season ticket never mind sell me one... If there are no changes ,,starting with the coach., then Im done with rugby league forever. I really feel for our players they ARE GOOD but made to play poorly as said above Chase is now just another average player hardly saw him today..Wish I could end on a possative ...... no can not think of one.

Couldn't make my mind up today whether it was Rangi Chase or Chevy Chase

Beryl deserved man of the match because he was playing 7 AND 6.

Full credit to London for coming back from 16-0 down after 20 minutes. We got the start I was hoping for, then we lost our way.



Guy Armitage is a player with some potential. Without him in the London team, I suspect we would have won a little more easily. He was very much their 'go to' man. In the end, the game could have gone either way and we were perhaps quite fortunate to win.



Matty Beharrell has been an excellent signing for us. I sometimes wonder where we'd be without him.



We played with an energy and enthusiasm early on, typified by some of the brave efforts made by Jordie Hedges. London looked ordinary. Once London got their act together, they started to look dangerous and we began to look ordinary.



Our line speed in defense was particularly poor in the second half. This gave London quite a lot of momentum. We weren't able to stop their forwards making good metres when driving out of their own half.



Whilst London had a plan that they stuck to well, our strategy seemed disjointed with too much one-man rugby. Watson Boas tried hard when he came on but I feel we missed the extra buzz we've had from Jez Litten. Rangi was really off the pace today.



League Table: (Pld, =#0000FFPts, Pts Diff, =#FF0000Max =#FF0000Possible Points)



1) Whitehaven 17, =#0000FF26, +130, =#FF000032

2) Oldham 17, =#0000FF24, +230, =#FF000030

3) Newcastle 17, =#0000FF23, +261, =#FF000029

4) Hunslet 17, =#0000FF22, +241, =#FF000028

5) Dons 17, =#0000FF20, +219, =#FF000026

6) Worky 18, =#0000FF19, +126, =#FF00002=#FF00003

7) London 18, =#0000FF15, -80, =#FF000019



Matches left to be played:



Whitehaven: Keighley (H), W Wales (H), Coventry (A) It’s hard not to see Haven finishing top now.



Oldham: Dons (H), Coventry (A), Hunslet (A). If Oldham beat the Dons, we cannot finish above them. If we win all three remaining games, and Oldham only beat Coventry, we could be level with them on points at the end of the season.



Newcastle: Coventry (H), N Wales (H), Keighley (A). Two wins for Newcastle sees them definitely finish above us. They should manage that.



Hunslet: London (A), Workington (H), Oldham (H). Three tricky games for Hunslet, although two of them are at home. We could do with London beating them in their next match.



Dons: Oldham (A), Keighley (H), Workington (A). Anything short of three wins probably means fifth place will be the best we can achieve. If we only beat Keighley, Workington could demote us to sixth spot but that would also mean Worky would have to beat Hunslet as well as beating the Dons in the last match.



Workington: Hunslet (A), Dons (H).



The Dons still have plenty to play for but a defeat at Oldham may mean we will finish fifth. A win at Oldham means we might still overtake Oldham and/or Hunslet to finish third or fourth.



With three games to go, we could still finish anywhere between third and sixth. I suspect it will go down to the last round of games to determine our final position. On the last day of the season we're at Worky whilst Hunslet are at home to Oldham.

London must be gutted not to have done the double over us after a shambolic performance by the Dons at the Keepmoat.



At 16-0 up we looked to be cruising until...……as usual we press the self destruct button and low and behold, stupid play after stupid play , allowed London their way back into the game.



Armitage looked class, and was obviously their go too man , with three tries he looked head and shoulders above our left side.



After all the hype regarding the signing of Rangi I don't think he has made a real difference to the side.

In attack he has merely handed the ball on and showed non of the running game that made him Man of Steel.

In most of the games he has been well off the pace and yesterday he was invisible.

I know he needs game time ,however time is running out quickly and another year in Championship 1 beckons.



After Oldhams win over Newcastle yesterday it just proves what a tough ask next week is going to be.



We need three wins to improve our chances of a home draw in the play offs, but with Workington finding form and Keighley already beating us this season we are on the back foot.



With others on here calling for a new coach, I would say this, is it the coach that misses tackles or that makes the ty pass that ends up being thrown to nobody in particular ,

is it the coach that gets forced into touch on the second play, after defending our line.

No its so-called semi pro players that cant seem to manage a game when the pressure is on.



I have said it before and i will say it again , we are where we are because that is our level , for all the hype ,

we are an average team in a poor division that needs to stop pretending we are a top of the table side waiting for promotion because we are not.

Plenty more to come Gary!

Plenty more to come Brian!

Is he hiding?

Rob where are you?

Penalty count was 3 for the Dons and 7 for London.

KLD mentions that it is not the coach who makes stupid blunders on the field, but it is the players.

Can't argue with that, however let me mention one incident in the second half when it appears that all of the Don's players and coaches went to sleep, but people in the stand were well aware of and even shouted about with no success.

Their right winger, or at least that's where he stood, got himself injured taking the ball in and was left badly limping.

Everyone could see it, he could hardly walk.

We had the ball at the time for a short spell until he was allowed to limp off.

Not once did we take the ball in against him during that spell.

Who is the spotter in this outfit, where is the chain of command?

Shocking!

Just what is RH there for?



London did plenty of targetting our weaknesses, particularly in the second half.

No disputing it was a pretty dire performances. Really worried about a couple of players who defend on our left !

That would be the targeting that I mentioned ... very weak yesterday.

I left when they levelled the score I can't remember being so annoyed at a game for donkeys years. The problem with our left side defence could have been seen by Stevie Wonder. As for some of the comments on Cleggbook - deluded.

Whitehaven have proved this year that all you need in Champ 1 is basic rugby ……………, nothing sparkling or flamboyant just hard running and strong defence.



Countless times this season our game management has been severely lacking.

One minute we are 20 points up and cruising, then we force a pass, make an error and give the opposition impetus.

We are a poor side under pressure and once we start shipping points the writing is on the wall.

Yesterday was a wake up call.



When i saw the squad i was very optimistic as i think bar one or two that was our strongest 17 but twenty minutes in the wheels came off.

I cant fault the boys efforts but better game management must be RH's priority



A great run from Chrimes got us going forward for the drop goal but we need to be smarter from 1 to 17 come the play offs

I think Beryl stood back a bit more this time for the field goal,learning from his absolute gaffe at Fev which cost us the game.

Sorry Beryl but it did!



Let's also remember London missed a kick to probably win it before Chrimes' and Beryl's heroics.



Boy were we shouting 'DROP GOAL!!!'

Louder than 'Attack the winger!' when he was injured.

just read RHs comments on the Dons website,,,, laughable to say the least ... if hes happy with that performance yesterday... then he is in the wrong job

To be fair to RH ,I think he was happy with the character the side showed in winning it . No way should he be pleased with the performance .

don't think character won the game either weighman by a long chalk

I honestly don't think defence is our problem, the table alone shows we have the lowest points against in the division. Sure some aren't as good at tackling as others and they may be targetted, just as some are faster, some are stronger, some are better passes etc. I lost count at the number if sets London had in our 20 in the second half and only managed to squeeze over a couple of times after very long periods of being shut out. Our defence was snaffling most of it out but eventually a ball drops or a tackle is missed, it's just stats.



The problem is why they were allowed to be there so often, and that comes down to us not respecting the balls when we have it. It's a cliche but true; the best way to stop the opposition attacking your line is to not let them have the ball, we coughed it up too easily. Then after we have dropped it a few times we clam up and the creativity goes and the situation worsens.



Thought the guys returning from injuries put in good stints, particularly Douglas who I'd have been tempted to give MoM

Agree about Douglas he went well after being out for such a long time. He and Frankie will come on for that game. As for the defence I concur regarding the defence (points against) as a whole what is apparent is that our left side (JT's channel) is getting targeted by opposing teams.