I wish we were as good as Doncaster,

and to think we won this trophy with some top class players.

 

Glad we’re nowhere near the level Doncaster are at. If you want to use tonight as a barometer as to where the 2 clubs are at, then that’s up to you.

 

Bit cold for night fishing fer me !

 

"I wish we were as good as Doncaster"
Me too, they look a very good tidy incisive cohesive determined team of players. I was impressed with them, they could and should have scored at least 6

 

Our lads by and large had a good run out tonight but were woefully outclassed. Cotter mind didn’t break sweat.

 

It's usually always the case, players naturally drop off when it's only a friendly or the equivalent of one. Donny still had it all to play for hence why it was kids vs strong team

 

It’s a tad worrying if we’re outclassed by a L2 side even with a much weakened side. These academy players that keep getting bigged up don’t seem to be showing anything to back it up. For me the academy isn’t justifying what it costs us.

 

Lawlor, Anderson, Nixon, Close, Sbarra, Ironside, Gibson, Molyneux, Hurst & Clifton are all part of their first team….

Tonight has no indication whatsoever as any kind of barometer.

 

Save your breath, let them wallow.

 

Oh give over. It's kids/fringe vs a very strong Doncaster side who are 4th in league 2. In a friendly from our point of view.

Clifton is who we were linked with last season (or perhaps the year before?)

 

You say a friendly. Surely if you’re getting a chance in a first team game, whatever the competition, you’d be wanting to make an impression? We’ve been absolutely woeful in this competition over all 3 games.

 

I know the OPs fishing, but we had none of the starting 11 from Saturday and 3 players from Saturday's bench getting mins tonight. They had around 9/10 players that played some part at Bradford at the weekend and some of their starting 11.

I wish we had drawn them this Saturday..

 

Ffs give your heads a wobble.

They essentially played their first team.

We mainly had a bunch of kids out, including our fourth choice keeper, a ‘senior’ centre back who hadn’t been near the first team for the last two seasons, a first team player in Cotter who never looked arsed and didn’t break sweat; two young fringe first team forwards of which neither if we’re honest have looked good enough - there is little to be concerned about tonight’s result. It’s indicative of absolutely nothing.

I’d expect such a weakened and inexperienced team to be tonked by seasoned league professionals.

Donny are a good league two side. They’d give our first team a game - but we are still bigger and better.

Calm the **** down.

 

Of course it has.

It shows that our reserve stock - although quite a few have turned out for our first team - did not compete with a decent team in the league below.

It showed that none of them looked like pressing for a first team place.

 

I get that it was a nothing game against an experienced side tonight, but our fringe/academy players have really not done anything to stake a claim in the 3 games in this competition. I don't know if that's because they're not very good or don't have the desire, but either way it's a poor reflection on them and Clarke. And tonight is yet another crap performance and result at Oakwell.

 

That point would have more merit if we did anything useful when we ‘had it all to play for’ in the earlier games.

 

But we've just taken 7 points from 9 so I think it's fair to mention.

 

True but wholly unrelated to the point you made.

 

The thread is literally called 'I wish we were as good as Doncaster' - I think my point is fine in all honesty. It's a glorified friendly and this whole tournament we've had kids/fringe players out, clearly it's not something we've aimed for, I think it would have been completely different if the format was still like 2016

 

Okay.

I’m looking forward to seeing us play/improve ‘when we’ve got something to play for’. But if I can’t spot when that is, and you do, drop me a line.