REPORT: Doncaster 1-2 Accrington


EFL SkyBet League 1
Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster (Att: 7,222)
Tuesday 23 April 2019

Doncaster left the play-off door ajar after Accrington all but confirmed their safety by ending the hosts 13 game unbeaten home run.

Grant McCann’s men have a three-point lead over Peterborough below them but have played a game more than his former employers at London Road.

It was two moments of quality which put a hold on any post-season plans for the Yorkshiremen though.

Sean McConville registered his eleventh goal of the campaign when he side footed home on the volley Paul Smyth’s inch perfect right wing cross from close range in emphatic fashion.

The long-serving winger should have doubled his – and his team’s – tally less than fifteen minutes from the break when he created some space for himself inside the penalty area but inexplicably curled wide from 14 yards.

Home skipper Tommy Rowe’s turn and shot – which was repelled at close quarters by visiting ‘keeper Jonathan Maxted - couldn’t mask a lacklustre first half which, incidentally, got worse.

The energetic Smyth latched on to a long ball over the top and composed himself before unleashing a dipping volley over the keeper on the stroke of half time to put the visitors in complete command.
A change of personnel at the break brought about a change of tact from the hosts and the siege was unrelenting.

Mallik Wilks - a former Stanley loanee - toe poked an effort just wide through a crowd of bodies, substitute Kieran Sadlier saw a rasping drive from 25 yards cannon off the face of the crossbar before John Marquis teed up a volley for himself which ruffled the top of the net.

Accrington forays forward became scarcer but no less threatening; a deep Jordan Clark cross was headed by Matty Blair on to his own upright before bouncing fortunately away from danger, as the game drew towards a seemingly inevitable conclusion.

That was until Danny Andrew – for the third successive home game – curled a deflected free kick past a stranded Maxted as the hosts probed for the unlikeliest of points. To compound home angst, they almost found it when Sadlier connected sweetly with a volley with the last kick of the game which smacked the post and bounced away.

Teams:
Doncaster – Marosi; Blair, Downing, Anderson, Andrew; Crawford (Sadlier, 46), Kane, Rowe; May (Whiteman, 46), Wilks, Marquis.
Bookings – Sadlier (90+)

Accrington – Maxted; Donacien, Sykes, Hughes, Richards-Everton; Clark Coneely, Barlaser, McConville; Smyth (Armstrong, 69), Kee.
Bookings –

Man of the match – Paul Smyth (Accrington)

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