Doncaster v Blackpool Official Matchday Thread 26.07.25

Gone with the team I suggested in an earlier thread with the current injuries. All you can do with the players out injured.

Give the majority 45-60 minutes then sub them off. Can’t afford any injuries heading into next week
 
hertfordseasider said:
That bench shows we are 6 players short because most won't be anywhere near the first team squad once the players are in. We are totally undercooked and you have to question the recruitment because we are way too short.
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Recruitment started well. We look short because of injuries but we shouldn’t panic buy just because of said injuries. Signings will come
 
hertfordseasider said:
That bench shows we are 6 players short because most won't be anywhere near the first team squad once the players are in. We are totally undercooked and you have to question the recruitment because we are way too short.
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Patience herts. Recruitment so far has been excellent this summer. We are obviously going for players a grade up. Hopefully we will get a couple in next week. But I would rather see us wait until we can get the right players not panic buy. If Apter hadn’t forced a move things would be looking good.
 
EdgeleyTangerine said:
Recruitment started well. We look short because of injuries but we shouldn’t panic buy just because of said injuries. Signings will come
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Agreed but the signings practically stopped dead. Why haven't we been able to get the attacking players by now? They were SB's priority. We don't want to panic buy at all but even with the injured players back we are still very low on numbers who can make a difference.
 
It might be 442 with Brown at right back. He has played there

Id be surprised if it’s not. Bruce won’t want to mess around with shape a week before the season starts

Edit. Just seen Ihiekwe. I’m wrong
 
Superbretty said:
Patience herts. Recruitment so far has been excellent this summer. We are obviously going for players a grade up. Hopefully we will get a couple in next week. But I would rather see us wait until we can get the right players not panic buy. If Apter hadn’t forced a move things would be looking good.
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We are paying for last summer's recruitment and keeping the awful Critchley when he should have been gone straight after the Reading game. We should have extended Carey's contract although he would still likely have left it would have been for a couple of million and Apter played his way to a move and we have the money. We got rid of so much deadwood from January last season going into this and we will likely get rid of 2 or 3 more, so recruitment must have known what was going on. We will see where we are on the 1st September but SB will be mightily pissed off if he doesn't have the players he wants.
 
After a bright start to the summer, having that squad in our last friendly a week before the season starts is really really worrying. We have a upper mid-table starting 11 at the moment and lacking strength in depth in pretty much every position. Really hope Bruce is able to bring in another 5 or so quality players otherwise i can see it being another mid table finish.
 
If we started stacking the squad with back ups for potential injuries weeks ago, you’d all be whinging the same way. Dead wood not good enough etc. When Blox, CJ and Albie are back, we’re 3/4 short of a very good squad. I can’t see any of them taking longer than Exeter, in which we shouldn’t be worried about who’s coming in and when. It’s going to happen and we’re very obviously not going to start the season with new scholars on the bench.

I’m not writing either Stevenage or Exeter off, what I’m saying is if it was Hudds and Bolton coming up - I’d be in major panic mode. We have a full week before kick off to recruit a minimum of 2 players that will realistically see us through both games, whilst other deals happen. And I’m still confident we’d beat them with our current starting XI.

Having to change your sheets every few hours for you bed wetters must be exhausting!
 
People still keep talking about the right fullback position, so why let Jordan leave? He appeared to be over his injury problems, so surely Lions is more of a liability.
 
VHS_Junior said:
If we started stacking the squad with back ups for potential injuries weeks ago, you’d all be whinging the same way. Dead wood not good enough etc. When Blox, CJ and Albie are back, we’re 3/4 short of a very good squad. I can’t see any of them taking longer than Exeter, in which we shouldn’t be worried about who’s coming in and when. It’s going to happen and we’re very obviously not going to start the season with new scholars on the bench.

I’m not writing either Stevenage or Exeter off, what I’m saying is if it was Hudds and Bolton coming up - I’d be in major panic mode. We have a full week before kick off to recruit a minimum of 2 players that will realistically see us through both games, whilst other deals happen. And I’m still confident we’d beat them with our current starting XI.

Having to change your sheets every few hours for you bed wetters must be exhausting!
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I don't think it is 'bed wetting' to be concerned about our lack of depth and being so short going into the start of the season, especially considering it was a noticeable issue last season and the fact that we fairly consistently come in a bit underbaked as of late.

Main issues for me are going into the first game with Kouassi as our main back up striker, which is poor. And I also don't think our succession planning is very good, nor has it been for a while. There was interest in Apter last summer; we should have been prepared for the fact he might be off and perhaps should have had a replacement lined up. Wycombe have just brought in Fink given the fact there's a lot of interest around Kone and they might lose him, for example.

Injuries can't be helped but they've exposed our lack of depth.

Let's hope a couple come through the door next week as you say though. It'd be good to have a settled eleven going into that run of games after Exeter that includes Hudds, Plymouth, Bolton and Luton over 4 weeks.
 
thefutureistangerine said:
I don't think it is 'bed wetting' to be concerned about our lack of depth and being so short going into the start of the season, especially considering it was a noticeable issue last season and the fact that we fairly consistently come in a bit underbaked as of late.

Main issues for me are going into the first game with Kouassi as our main back up striker, which is poor. And I also don't think our succession planning is very good, nor has it been for a while. There was interest in Apter last summer; we should have been prepared for the fact he might be off and perhaps should have had a replacement lined up. Wycombe have just brought in Fink given the fact there's a lot of interest around Kone and they might lose him, for example.

Injuries can't be helped but they've exposed our lack of depth.

Let's hope a couple come through the door next week as you say though. It'd be good to have a settled eleven going into that run of games after Exeter that includes Hudds, Plymouth, Bolton and Luton over 4 weeks.
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Lack of depth due to a couple of unfortunate knocks that aren’t long term, not the end of the world. Like mentioned, if we’d filled the squad with mediocre crap just for depth in numbers, I’d be more concerned than I am now. I’ll start my worrying if we haven’t signed anyone in key after the first game. A week is long time in the transfer window, we don’t know how close deals are either. It is very draining to see the same negativity every time a pre season line-up is announced.
 
tangible said:
Who's Elder?
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As others have said it's 1st year scholar George Elder on the bench.
He's a left-footed CB although I have seen him play at LB but that's probably just part of his development. Whilst he was strictly an u16 last season he played pretty much the whole season for the 18s.
He's been quietly impressive and I'm really pleased he's accepted a scholarship with BFC. I'm pretty sure he'll be on a watch list and I'd like to think he'll be offered a pro-contract once he's 17.
 
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TANGERINETOWERPOWER said:
It’s just frustrating that two weeks ago we looked on schedule for a great window and a team ready to challenge..we just needed to continue that momentum and get four or five more quality players in..I don’t understand why we are last minute dot com again…had months to target what we need
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David Downes is the problem. He’s done much better this window but we go into the new season underprepared again. Injuries haven’t helped but really need to sort the strength in depth
 
VHS_Junior said:
Lack of depth due to a couple of unfortunate knocks that aren’t long term, not the end of the world. Like mentioned, if we’d filled the squad with mediocre crap just for depth in numbers, I’d be more concerned than I am now. I’ll start my worrying if we haven’t signed anyone in key after the first game. A week is long time in the transfer window, we don’t know how close deals are either. It is very draining to see the same negativity every time a pre season line-up is announced.
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I think people are going to call it how they see it, and the fact is, we're very short going into the first game of the season—just seven days away as it stands. With everyone fit I still think we're three good additions away from being a squad competing for promotion.

Still, a week left as you say—so let's see. I just don't think we have a great track record with this as of late, but if you're less concerned, that's great. And if it's draining there's always the ignore button!
 
thefutureistangerine said:
I think people are going to call it how they see it, and the fact is, we're very short going into the first game of the season—just seven days away as it stands. With everyone fit I still think we're 3-4 good additions away from being a squad competing for promotion.

Still, a week left as you say—so let's see. I just don't think we have a great track record with this as of late, but if you're less concerned, that's great. And if it's draining there's always the ignore button!
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Bar them injuries we was wasn’t to far off? The transfer window shuts at the end of August. I’m not to worried
 
hertfordseasider said:
Agreed but the signings practically stopped dead. Why haven't we been able to get the attacking players by now? They were SB's priority. We don't want to panic buy at all but even with the injured players back we are still very low on numbers who can make a difference.
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We are bidding at a higher level than ever before these players have plenty of suitors
 
TANGERINETOWERPOWER said:
It’s just frustrating that two weeks ago we looked on schedule for a great window and a team ready to challenge..we just needed to continue that momentum and get four or five more quality players in..I don’t understand why we are last minute dot com again…had months to target what we need
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It seems to happen season after season. What I think we should've done is get one or two forwards in place first, then gone in for the other positions, which would show our intent for a promotion push.
🧡⚽️UTMP⚽️🧡
 
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