Middlesbrough v Doncaster

[Chris Black come back]

Second round draw takes place tomorrow night at 7.20pm. This will involve the 11 Premier League sides not in Europe (includes Man Utd) and is still regionalised. Games take place in week of 25 August and if we draw anyone half respectable then we are surely a TV game.

[KingKendrick]

Where does that rank. Fantastic from start to finish. Brick wall at the back, fast and aggressive going forward. Everyone put a shift in but a special mention for lawlor and close. Both put in performances that being honest I’d wrote them off. Brilliant lads. What a problem to have for Grant

[andyst79]

The thing that stood out most was the togetherness of the squad , you could tell from the goal celebrations what it meant to all the players. Kudos to GM and the staff I think every player genuinely feels they have an important part to play this season and there's no egos in the squad just a genuine belief in the collective.

[Chris Black come back]

It is a feat of man management to so obviously not favour players like Lawlor and Close yet keep them so motivated they turn in performances like that.

[danumdon]

The crazy thing about it all is we should have had a hatfull,

Ironside and Gibson would score them chances more often than not.

Just goes to show what you can do when the pressure is off the side, just go out and play, they did that alright!

[mushRTID]

I think that may be the best Iv seen us play, Iv been going since the conference days.

Jesus f**king Christ. What a performance

[danumdon]

Open games always seem to suit us best, Higher based teams think they can play and give you space.

We just filled our boots and some!

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Brilliant performance. Are we the real deal or just on a great run?

That's one helluva bar to set!

Maybe not the most important win, but surely the best most comprehensive performance in the modern era. Does it even eclipse the Villa game?

[drfchound]

Na na na na nananana
Seven in a row.    In a row
Seven in a row.

[jmt23]

Just a quick mention for Gibson, a strong and effective performance. Joe the iron looked back to some kind of fitness, and held the ball against some tough challenges. Funny how the ref blew for fouls against Joe that went totally missed on Saturday against Hanlon.

[Chris Black come back]

This is now the fourth season McCann has been in charge. All four of his first round League Cup games have been away (respectively Scunthorpe United, Hull City, Salford City and Middlesbrough) and all four have been won.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Is their incentive two weeks in Dubai at the end of the season?

[Metalmicky]

Just a quick mention for Gibson, a strong and effective performance.

TBH I thought he started well, but seemed to flag by early doors in second half....

[Chris Black come back]

Bet Copps is keeping a low profile!

[StocksArmy]

Tonight you saw a club that are completely together. Well drilled and the main thing…. Professional footballers not sulking about not starting league games and saying right… f@ck you Grant I’m gonna show you. So pick me a starting 11 on Saturday now? Single handedly the best performance I have seen from a Rovers team in my 31 years. From start to finish we were bang at it in every department. We hunted, were creative and were clinical. Not even going to begin to pick out individual performances because it just wouldn’t be fair. What a club we are in this moment.

[Rosso Rover]

I watched at home on TV and when we went 2-0 up I was waiting for the collapse of old. But we just got stronger , I have watched Rovers for over 60 yrs and never seen a team bond as much and you seen it when Nixon put the fourth in what it ment to him and his team mates. This club as certainly turned the corner and the upward again long may it continue. Special shout to all who went tonight as you heard them all the way through the game.

[scawsby steve]

Does anyone know how many from Donny were there? They certainly made some noise.

[jmt23]

Grant said a thousand or so in his interview.

[RoversInSpain]

Does anyone know how many from Donny were there? They certainly made some noise.

Think on Rovers+ they said 1100 from Rovers. Just over 11900 in attendance.

[Ian Nimmo]

Just back home and wow what a performance, every single player gave their all tonight.
I have never doubted Ben Close, unlike quite a number of people on here.
I have always stated he his a class player, just unlucky with a very bad injury.
Given his game time over the last couple of years, his fitness tonight was terrific, well done Ben.

As for Mr Lawlor, well what can I say, that was a terrific performance pulling off so many great saves. One of the best goalkeeping performance by any rovers keepers over the last few years.

Difficult to choose MoM from these two, but would edge to Ian, given his lack of competitive games.

[StocksArmy]

Just back home and wow what a performance, every single player gave their all tonight.
I have never doubted Ben Close, unlike quite a number of people on here.
I have always stated he his a class player, just unlucky with a very bad injury.
Given his game time over the last couple of years, his fitness tonight was terrific, well done Ben.

As for Mr Lawlor, well what can I say, that was a terrific performance pulling off so many great saves. One of the best goalkeeping performance by any rovers keepers over the last few years.

Difficult to choose MoM from these two, but would edge to Ian, given his lack of competitive games.

Credit where it’s due tonight for Close. He was outstanding. My feelings haven’t changed on him though. It’s one of the few performances we’ve had from him sadly and it’s time for both parties to move on.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Certainly was a superb performance but perspective!

It doesn't really match the games against Villa and Arsenal in 2005. That Arsenal game was against 9 of the players who would be in the squad for the Champions League final that year. But for Almunia, we'd have been over the horizon by half time.

And the two best assists I've ever seen from the Rovers came in those two games. Guy's genius lay off to Heffernan against Villa and Heffernan's exquisite pass to McIndoe against Arsenal.

[les@donr]

This display must have cut our odds for promotion.

[Sammy Chung was King]

The manager is building something special here. We didn’t have the possession they had but what we had we used wisely. First to every lose ball, breaking their attacks up. That was some performance, it could have been more than four.

[Alan Southstand]

Have a listen to Lawlor’s post- match interview with Radio Sheffield. He says the squad is like no other he’s ever been involved with. They’re all singing from the same hymn sheet.

That reflects on the management team!

[colincramb]

Hopefully get a nice winnable home game in R2 and then hopefully increase our chances of a big gun away to boost the coffers

[Arsenal Of The North]

What a joy that away day was. Even better when I spent a large portion of my childhood growing up around there! Had some nice messages from boro supporting friends.

11 men of the match. One of the best team preformances in a long time! Hard to believe ‘that’ Harrogate away day was only 3 years ago, how far we have come!

So much energy and aggression and determination to keep the ball out the net. Like another thread has said, I’d hate to be grant having to pick a team at the weekend! 

Bring on Everton away! New stadium please

[Ian Nimmo]

Just back home and wow what a performance, every single player gave their all tonight.
I have never doubted Ben Close, unlike quite a number of people on here.
I have always stated he his a class player, just unlucky with a very bad injury.
Given his game time over the last couple of years, his fitness tonight was terrific, well done Ben.

As for Mr Lawlor, well what can I say, that was a terrific performance pulling off so many great saves. One of the best goalkeeping performance by any rovers keepers over the last few years.

Difficult to choose MoM from these two, but would edge to Ian, given his lack of competitive games.

Credit where it’s due tonight for Close. He was outstanding. My feelings haven’t changed on him though. It’s one of the few performances we’ve had from him sadly and it’s time for both parties to move on.

We will have to disagree on that, I honestly believe his poor performances were a result of his injury woes. I still believe he could play a key role in midfield this season given his experience and quality.

[ravenrover]

At last, posters giving Close some praise. I've always said he's a class player, showed it last night

[MagicMartinoWoods]

Joe the iron looked back to some kind of fitness, and held the ball against some tough challenges. Funny how the ref blew for fouls against Joe that went totally missed on Saturday against Hanlon.

I don't always think it's on the ref. For me, part of the skill of playing as the lone target man/hold up striker is to get the balance right of resilience and staying on your feet when a defender is in your back and knowing just the right time to go down to show the ref you've been fouled. Now obviously different refs will have different tolerances, so it's your job as the striker to work that out and adapt how much you stay on your feet versus going down/'draw the foul'. And I think this is something Joe does exceptionally well. He looks strong one second, then goes down like he's made of paper the next, and we get a free kick more times than not. That's skill and experience. I wouldn't dismiss it as just at the whim of the ref. I'm not sure Hanlon, based on a very few showings, can match Joe in that area, but of course we need to give Hanlon a chance.