Rovers Vs Arsenal

Last updated : 21 December 2005 By David Shanks

Dave Penney will pit his wits with Arsene Wenger tonight as Doncaster Rovers take on premiership giants Arsenal.

Arsenal Line-Up
Almunia, Poom, Gilbert, Eboue, Djourou, Senderos, Owusu Abeyie, Muamba, Hleb, Larsson, Van Persie, Lupoli, Bendtner, Song, Cygan, Gilberto.


The Rovers Line-up is said to be the same as that against Swansea. 

The Rovers haven’t got to this stage of the competition for 30 years and no matter how the scoreline goes tonight, this campaign has certainly been a memorable one.

In the first round of the Carling Cup, Rovers won Wrexham 0-1 at the Racecourse Ground with a goal from Hughes, and most fans who saw the result thought "oh it's only the Carling Cup, we never get very far", and to be honest I was one of them, but how wrong we were!

In the second round we knocked out
Man City, it was 0-0 after full-time, but during extra-time, McGuire was adjudjed to have brought down Dunne, with Vassell smashing the penalty into the roof of the net.

The lead didn't last long when Rovers were awarded a penalty with 2 minutes of extra-time left, McIndoe slid the ball into the bottom left of the goal sending David James the wrong way.

Penalties came round, and McIndoe, Coppinger and Heffernan all scored, Vassell hit the cross-bar, Sibierski and Dunne had theirs saved by Budtz, winning the game for The Rovers.

The third rounds saw Rovers win
Gillingham 2-0, with 2 goals from Heffernan.


The fourth round saw Rovers out-play, out-class and out-work Aston Villa to win them 3-0 at Belle Vue.

The linesman signalled a penalty to Rovers and McIndoe stepped up to do the necessary work to put the Rovers in front.

Heffernan got Rovers second as he was played into the box and slotted the ball past Sorensen and into the bottom left corner.

Thornton skipped his way past a defender and slammed a cracker into the top right corner of the net for a third goal after 79 minutes. Get in!

And that’s where we are now, the biggest game at belle vue for 30 years, and perhaps the last as we move into our new stadium next year.

My prediction
Rovers 1-2 Arsenal, although I hope different!