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No shame in losing to in-form Rovers - MATCH REPORT AND SLIDESHOW
SIMON Davey will have seen nothing to frighten him when he watched the Owls at the Keepmoat Stadium.
Wednesday will hope that they have lulled him into a false sense of security as, with his Barnsley team not having a game, he did his homework before tomorrow's visit to Hillsborough.
The lesson for him and the rest of the Championship is that Doncaster are truly a rejuvenated force and that Wednesday can still be an up-and-down side.
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The Owls' euphoria of the Sheffield derby was replaced by dejection at the end on Saturday. Several players stood motionless in the centre circle, seemingly stunned.
The feelgood factor was replaced by the feelbad factor.
Rovers took a familiar winning feeling in their stride, and how they deserved it.
They totally outplayed Wednesday in the first half, for all but the first five minutes, and should have led by a bigger margin than 1-0 at half time.
The Owls did better in the second half, but not well enough to reward fully the 3,319 sell-out away following who gave them terrific backing and will perhaps realise that there is no shame just now in losing to Doncaster, who have won six of their last seven League games and, like Wednesday, have been recently victorious at Bramall Lane.
Rovers' passing and movement was better than Wednesday's and their midfield was just as cohesive as Brian Laws had expected, with the foursome of Brian Stock (in front of the back four), Martin Woods, John Spicer and Richie Wellens.
Sponsors bizarrely gave their Man of the Match award to the whole Doncaster team, but, for me, the accomplished Wellens was outstanding.
It would have been hard to pick a Wednesday star man - a big contrast to the Lane game where there were several candidates, including Marcus Tudgay, whose glory day was followed by a quiet one.
Leon Clarke was the Owls' biggest threat and did not quite get the breaks in the box, though he might also have scored with the free header that hit the bar.
Paul Heffernan made no mistake with a free header, sneaking in behind Richard Wood - a goal that ended up being the difference between the sides. But Rovers missed enough chances to give the impression that they need more firepower to become a long-term force in the division.
Goals, it is proved time and again, change games.
If James O'Connor had put away a volley in the fourth minute, from a Clarke knockdown, who knows how the story would have finished? You could say the same of the Wednesday striker's header and Rovers' other chances.
Laws tried something different in the second half, pushing Michael Gray into a central creative midfield role, with Clarke down the middle up front and Jermaine Johnson and Tudgay to the left and right respectively.
The Owls manager was also on the brink of making a double substitution but decided against it because the the team were faring a little better and not without hope of an equaliser.
But with Francis Jeffers suspended and Steve Watson ruled out by another problem with his hip, the bench was not too well endowed with match-turning potential.
Although Wednesday's players cannot have loved the Keepmoat Stadium pitch, on which the ball tends to bobble along, Laws refused to count that as a factor in the team's performance and said the surface was the same for both sides.
It's back on Hillsborough pastures for the Owls tomorrow as they bid to make it six points from these three South Yorkshire derbies, two of them away and one at home. That would still be a respectable haul.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
