Let's talk about the Tottenham and Luton Town game

[selby]

  First up the glamour game against Tottenham a premiership side in what is one of the worlds iconic new stadiums which is a dream for both fans and players to be part of from our level there.
  It's in a competition that really teams from our level have no realistic chance of winning, but we have a good chance if we win a couple of games of pulling a game like this out of the bag, and becomes a financial win at least, and we might get lucky and get the odd surprise result, that's what we want on Wednesday.
  With the two games so near together, and the Luton game the most important, we most likely will need a lot of our full squad to be involved in the two games, so predicting who plays in what game I suggest only Grant and his staff have any idea of.
  Lawlor and Pearson are two obvious ones who will want to play games, but in what game?
  In both games we need to pick up and get back to the majority on the field of play playing somewhere near the top of their ability for us to do well.
  We are not a team of stars even at Division 1 and 2 level, what we have are a couple of very good players and quite a few who can raise their game in certain situations and we create and concede moments in games rather than dictate large periods.
  Whatever happens Wednesday we have already got out of the competition what we start off trying to achieve, namely make a few quid, so its a free hit and we can just have a go. With Europe and other important games to play how Tottenham approach the game team selection wise is another conundrum, will they go Strong? or throw youngsters in?
  Whatever I hope everyone enjoys the trip, am praying for a result that for a short while will propel us as national news and further the clubs reputation and bring a bit of excitement to the area.
   Saturday we go to Luton, another side that with money from their brief stay in the premiership have the finances we can only dream of, but are having a bad time of it being relegated from the championship last season and not exactly pulling any trees up this season sitting in 12th in the division and lost their most recent game yesterday at Lincoln 3-1, so like us will be looking to get back on track.
  Who would be a manager? Grant's head must be buzzing, a big team game on Wednesday, a more important game on Saturday, and a performance on Saturday when we were bullied, looked a tired team lacking energy, and with confidence shook after two poor performances.
  Lots of things to put right, not a lot of time to get ideas over, and some players he knows he will disappoint  if they are not involved in the show game Wednesday.
  Lots to discuss, a lot more than usual, two very important games for different reasons, and a need to get back on track and stop what could turn into a bad run of results, and spoil a good start to the season.
  Please have your say.

[Londoner]

I can't believe we have to share a thread with Luton.

 

[Londoner]

https://www.topspurs.com/thfc-doncasterrovers.htm

[Londoner]

https://www.11v11.com/teams/tottenham-hotspur/tab/opposingTeams/opposition/Doncaster%20Rovers/

[adamtherover]

I can't believe we have to share a thread with Luton.

 

..and after all you've done for this club mate!..  :-).       #honoureryLegendForServicesToTransport!

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Might be an idea to start another thread to capture our experiences of the day, separate from rhe match, post photos vids of things good, bad or indifferent from start to finish?

[Filo]

Ajayi given permission to play on Wednesday

[Pintolager]

Might be an idea to start another thread to capture our experiences of the day, separate from rhe match, post photos vids of things good, bad or indifferent from start to finish?

Great idea DBR!

[drfchound]

After the two losses in a row there will be several players who will start on Wednesday who will have an extra incentive to do well and force their way into the the team for the more important match against Luton on Saturday.
Could it cause another big shock of a result as happened in round one?

[normal rules]

Highly likely to be the third biggest crowd ever, a rovers team have played in front of.

[drfcsteve]

Ajayi given permission to play on Wednesday

Hasn’t shown anything so far that he deserves to play for me though. Hopefully he comes good.

[normal rules]

Still tickets left by all
Accounts . Only a very small amount though

[Scooter]

https://www.topspurs.com/thfc-doncasterrovers.htm

So we haven't beaten spurs in 90 years. Spurs used to have success when the year ends in '1'. Maybe we will have success when the year ends in '5' - 1935 & 2025

Here's hoping!

[Londoner]

https://x.com/SpursOfficial/status/1970478654301094233

[Pancho Regan]

Are we playing both teams at once to save on travel costs?

[steve@dcfd]

Talking about team travel will they stay down South after the game or travel home then back down on Friday ??

[selby]

  I was having difficulty Logging on and thought the computer was knackered. That's my excuse for combining them and I am sticking to it

[jmt23]

For me I just feel this Spurs game has distracted the lads in the league, an easy or lazy thing to say, but it’s how I feel after such a start and then out of nowhere two games of polar opposite performances.
So whilst I’m excited to see them have a go against one of the big teams at a fantastic stadium, I also can’t wait for it to be over, so we get back to what really counts.

Luton will be another tough team and we will need to be at our best, so a really tough few days for the lads, and if a lot of the first framers play against spurs I just hope they still have the legs for the league.

You often see lower level clubs play above their standing, but then struggle in games after, mainly due to fitness and keeping up with the speed and power of Premier League teams. I would much prefer Grant to play the team that got us to this position in the cup.

[In the box]

It’s a game with little expectations, so it either motivates players to just be more positive and just enjoy competing against some of the best around OR they loose heavily and it just proves it boys against men . Let’s hope the players just relax and play like we know they can .

[selby]

  The game at Luton has really grown in importance as we now really do need to get a result, the minimum not to lose if we are not to lose momentum a decent start has given the club.
  O'Riordan and Pearson or Bailey down the middle is a must for me to try and stop giving goals away every game.
  We need some clean sheets as we are not a side that is going to score a lot of goals, and we have slipped back in the last few games to having to score two or three goals to stay in the games with a chance of winning.
   Our left side central defence has a problem with pace that Bailey cured last season with Anderson and was the corner stone we built the results to get promotion, and we have numbers and class in midfield that can allow Bailey to play in the central defender role if Pearson is not seen as the fix.
  The goalkeeper position will also be interesting with Lawlor putting pressure on for a start.

[Alan Southstand]

Lawlor has had one decent game and suddenly he’s the second coming! GM has to stick with TLT and work out what the problem is.
It doesn’t help when full backs are unable to stop crosses raining in!
There are a few having a dip in form and that’s reflecting on our lack of goals scored. Better managers with better players are getting to grips with our creative outlets!

[scawsby steve]

Lawlor has had one decent game and suddenly he’s the second coming! GM has to stick with TLT and work out what the problem is.
It doesn’t help when full backs are unable to stop crosses raining in!
There are a few having a dip in form and that’s reflecting on our lack of goals scored. Better managers with better players are getting to grips with our creative outlets!

Alan, GM has said in the DFP that he will take advice from Kyle Letheren as to which keeper will play at Luton.

I expect much of that will depend on what they've both shown in training.

Let's trust GM and Kyle.

[steve@dcfd]

Luton play 3142we will have to get the balance right between attack and defence. We must make sure we don’t we concede early then develop our attacking game. Luton have conceded 6 goals in the last two games and scored 3 losing both games.
We are struggling scoring goals so defensively we must be on our game.

[selby]

  Whoever plays, and we all have different ideas of our best team, I rate this game probably the most important game since last February with regard to our standing in division 1.
  Many sides have set off the season well after a promotion and have had a lot of difficulty maintaining form throughout the season  when the adrenalin of promotion has subsided.
  If we play well and are beaten by a better side, then fair does and we take the positives out of the game and move on.
  If we are poor and look to be losing confidence and form then that is a problem. We are a team made up of decent players, no real grab a game by the scruff of the neck stars who can work majic and win a game on their own. We are a team that needs everyone to play near their best game to do well at this level. Not an impossible task as teams like Ipswich, Nottingham Forest, and Leicester City have proved at the top level in the past, but hard to keep form and fitness without the adrenalin of winning games and building momentum.
  Losing two league games, one against a team built on the same lines in Wimbledon,  and against Tottenham in the cup that had quite a few academy players in although still a good side might be a pointer to the fact we are just a bit off it as a group, something we can't afford to be.
  Hopefully we get back on it as a unit playing up there in form, and come away with something from the game at Luton we can build on again.

[Alan Southstand]

Scawsby, who’s suggesting we don’t trust Gm and Kyle? I’m getting a bit cheesed off at people jumping on the Lawlor train, when there’s little to suggest he’s the right pick.

Why hasn’t anyone jumped on Moly’s obvious problems, currently or the problem we have with scoring or the full backs not stopping crosses or our collective weakness at set pieces? There are several problems running throughout the team that need sorting and they’re just as important!

[scawsby steve]

Scawsby, who’s suggesting we don’t trust Gm and Kyle? I’m getting a bit cheesed off at people jumping on the Lawlor train, when there’s little to suggest he’s the right pick.

Why hasn’t anyone jumped on Moly’s obvious problems, currently or the problem we have with scoring or the full backs not stopping crosses or our collective weakness at set pieces? There are several problems running throughout the team that need sorting and they’re just as important!

If there's little to suggest that Lawlor's the right pick, then why is GM having this conversation with Kyle?

I'm fine with whoever get's the nod from those that see them in training every day. Also, I agree with you about Moly. He's clearly off form, and I'd have no complaints if someone else was given a chance.

As I've said before, no-one should be given a free pass into the team, and that includes both TLT and Moly.

[NickDRFC]

  Whoever plays, and we all have different ideas of our best team, I rate this game probably the most important game since last February with regard to our standing in division 1.
  Many sides have set off the season well after a promotion and have had a lot of difficulty maintaining form throughout the season  when the adrenalin of promotion has subsided.
  If we play well and are beaten by a better side, then fair does and we take the positives out of the game and move on.
  If we are poor and look to be losing confidence and form then that is a problem. We are a team made up of decent players, no real grab a game by the scruff of the neck stars who can work majic and win a game on their own. We are a team that needs everyone to play near their best game to do well at this level. Not an impossible task as teams like Ipswich, Nottingham Forest, and Leicester City have proved at the top level in the past, but hard to keep form and fitness without the adrenalin of winning games and building momentum.
  Losing two league games, one against a team built on the same lines in Wimbledon,  and against Tottenham in the cup that had quite a few academy players in although still a good side might be a pointer to the fact we are just a bit off it as a group, something we can't afford to be.
  Hopefully we get back on it as a unit playing up there in form, and come away with something from the game at Luton we can build on again.

I agree with the gist of your post but the Spurs team didn’t have “quite a few academy players”. They had one, who came on after 87 minutes. The starting XI were all signed at a cost of about £260m (apart from Palhinha, on loan from Bayern who signed him for £50m a year ago).

[selby]

  Let's call them young reserve back up players then certainly not as yet first team regulars and have played and play a lot of u21s games.
  The comparison with the side they turn out  at Newcastle in the next round will be interesting to see if they have any ambition to guarantee European football next season.
  That game was what it was set up to be, like other games in the competition to give four or five lower division clubs a pay day, a day out for the clubs supporters  with nearly a hundred per cent chance of the big clubs going through.
  Just check back and see the last few years last four left in the competition.
  The game today has a lot more pressure for us to try and get a result of some kind and stop a losing run. in the past when we have had poor seasons October has been when the rot has sunk in and form and confidence has been lost and hard to recover.
  As a group I think we are in a better position and as a club to avoid that, but we need to pull together and not just drift along, we need to keep the ambition on and off the field of play, we are just recovering from the period that saw our demise just up to last season and it is easier to slip back than go forward for clubs like ourselves.
 

[NickDRFC]

  Let's call them young reserve back up players then certainly not as yet first team regulars and have played and play a lot of u21s games.
  the comparison with the side they turn out  at Newcastle in the next round will be interesting to see if they have any ambition to guarantee European football next season.
 

I don’t know where you’ve read that or who has told you, but that’s just not true. None of the players who played against us play in under 21 games apart from the academy lad who came on right at the end. They’re all in the first team squad and have all featured regularly in the Premier League. A lot of players are young, like Gray, Odobert & Tel, but they still have plenty of first team experience both at Spurs and elsewhere.

We weren’t playing a bunch of 17 year olds enjoying their first taste of life at the Spurs stadium. We were playing a very expensively assembled group who are regularly in and around the first team. And by and large we performed well against them.

[GazLaz]

Their U21s played the night before hence the line up being a strong one.