City 4 Doncaster 0
Report by Ian Bason
Pre match I was firmly in the camp that the Play Off’s were beyond us now, despite being told by those that went to Peterborough that regardless of the result we had played quite well.
The team news was read out on the tannoy as I carried out my pre match ritual of looking at the brick with my late dad’s name on it, and to my surprise St Ledger had been dropped to the bench meaning the first start for the Bamba/Morgan central defensive pairing, with Wellens restored to the midfield alongside Drinkwater.
To my relief, when we kicked off, the formation had returned to 4-4-2, so the front pairing of Nugent & Beckford was re-established, rather than the former being stuck out wide.
The saying goes “you have to beat what is in front of you”, but having watched Ilunga argue with Diouf only 3 minutes into the game, it seemed clear that we were facing a side of individuals thrown together (by an agent) rather than a team.
Despite this, Doncaster still carved out several chances, with some poor finishing, as the Bamba/Morgan partnership didn’t appear to gel for the first period. City were also looking lively, with Ikeme making a couple of good saves (can anyone explain why a shot tipped over the top left hand corner resulted in a corner from the right wing?)
It seemed to take longer than it should have done, but finally Drinkwater broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute with a shot he didn’t properly connect with, but went in off the post, following a fine knock down Nugent header.
Half time and I really didn’t think Doncaster had enough about them to make a comeback, especially as Diouf did not appear for the 2nd half, having already lost Piquionne after 20 minutes, not that either had much impact anyway.
Any chance of a comeback was gone 2 minutes into the 2nd half when a low driven cross by Peltier seemed to be heading safely into the arms of former City loanee Ikeme, but somehow the ball managed to go through his arms and full body behind it and ended in the net. This was a case of Mum’s curse (rather than commentators) as she had said to me during half time that Ikeme had impressed her.
The little belief that the Doncaster players had evaporated and while their defence looked increasingly panicky, the only reason further goals didn’t quickly follow was that City seemed to take their foot off the gas for a period.
Nigel Pearson took the opportunity on the hour to give King & Gallagher a valuable half hour’s game time following both their returns from injury and for the same reason it was no surprise that Wellens was one to make way, with Dyer (who has covered more miles than most in the squad over recent weeks) also being given a shorter game.
The annual awards will be upon us soon, however the goal of the season choice is fast boiling down to which Ben Marshall shot to choose, as in the 78th minute he cut in from the left and let fly from 30 yards and it flew into top right hand corner.
A couple of minutes later, Marshall tried another, with less power and more swerve which came back off the post, as City seemed to sense that more goals were there for the taking and so it proved with a fine multi player move ending with King feeding Gallagher for a well placed 4th on the 89th minute.
In reality this was probably City’s easiest victory of the season against a League One bound side, so too early for me to declare that we can go on a 5 match winning sequence, however the 4 goals does mean we clearly have the best goal difference from the teams all around us, and if we can put a few wins together, that advantage will only increase, and it would not surprise me if whoever obtains 6th place on the final day of the season, only do so by goal difference
City: Schmeichel, Peltier, Morgan, Bamba, Konchesky, Marshall, Wellens (King 61), Drinkwater, Dyer (Gallagher 61), Nugent, Beckford (Schlupp 81). Unused subs: Howard, St. Ledger.
Goals: Drinkwater 33, Peltier 47, Marshall 78, Gallagher 89
Doncaster: Ikeme, Chimbonda, Beye, Lockwood, Ilunga; Gillett, Oster, Barnes (Robert 74), Coppinger, Piquionne (Brown 20), Diouf (Stock 46). Unused subs: Friend, Bennett.
Booked: Chimbonda
Attendance: 22,054 (445 away) Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire)
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation