Town 2-1 Doncaster Rovers Saturday, 12th Apr 2014 17:27 Skipper Luke Chambers netted the winning goal four minutes from time as play-off chasing Town beat Doncaster Rovers 2-1 at Portman Road to climb to seventh in the table. Daryl Murphy put the Blues in front just after the break, Chris Brown equalised for Rovers from the spot seven minutes from the end but Chambers struck the winner three minutes later. Tyrone Mings replaced Aaron Cresswell in an otherwise unchanged side, the left-back having suffered a groin injury at Huddersfield on Tuesday. The Liverpudlian's absence ended a run of 25 successive league games with an unchanged back four. Rovers included one-time Town targets James Coppinger and Billy Sharp, and former trialist Abdoulaye Meite, while another former Blues trialist, Bongani Khumalo, and ex-loanee Richie Wellens missed out due to knee and foot injuries respectively. The visitors came close to creating the game’s first chance within the opening minute but Cole Skuse did well to stab the ball away from Sharp as he looked to get on to a knockdown inside the area. In the eighth minute Paul Anderson flicked on Stephen Hunt’s under-hit freekick from the left but just too far in front of Chambers, Tommy Smith, Christophe Berra in the box. Four minutes later, Luke Hyam shot over after Hunt had been halted as he brought the ball forward on the left. The Blues were starting to take control after a slow start and on 14 Mings hit a low shot which Rovers keeper Sam Johnstone couldn’t hold on to but which was cleared to safety. A minute later former Norwich striker Brown was booked for a foul on Skuse. The resultant freekick was played short to Jonny Williams who took it forward to the edge of the box where he was tripped by Sharp, who joined his strike partner in referee Graham Scott’s book. That freekick was played to Murphy on the 18-yard line but his strike flew well over. Town were close to going in front in the 21st minute when Anderson out-chased Meite down the right to reach a ball played down the flank. The former Bristol City man cut a cross back to the on-rushing Hunt, who did well to get to the ball but was unlucky to divert it back the wrong side of Johnstone’s left post. Doncaster threatened on the half hour when James Husband crossed from the left and the ball reached the grounded Brown, who eventually managed to hook the ball to Gerken, who claimed. Murphy headed a Chambers cross from the right over, then Williams, who was being watched by Wales manager Chris Coleman, saw a ball in from the left blocked. But the visitors were also threatening on occasion and on 37 Gerken did well to save to his right when an unmarked Gabriel Tamas headed David Cotterill’s deep right-sided corner goalwards. Three minutes later Berra was somewhat harshly booked for a foul on Brown. The Blues, who had been rather under par for the most part, started to look more dangerous towards the break, Murphy nodding a chipped Hunt cross not far wide in the 43rd minute. Soon after Meite was booked for handling the ball as Town broke towards goal. Hunt’s curled freekick was easy for Johnstone. As the half moved into injury time Meite was again penalised for handball with the home crowd calling for a second yellow card which wasn’t forthcoming. Hunt curled across a freekick from the right, Smith flicked it towards the corner of the net but Johnstone did superbly to get down to his right tip to past the post. Moments later, referee Scott’s whistle brought the half to an end. The Blues had rarely reached the heights of Tuesday’s performance at Huddersfield but still could have found themselves ahead with Hunt’s chance from Anderson’s cross and Smith’s late header the game’s best opportunities. An evidently not overly impressed Mick McCarthy switched widemen Anderson and Hunt for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Frank Nouble at half-time as the Blues moved to 4-2-1-3 with Williams between the strikers and Hyam and Skuse. Two minutes after the restart the changes paid dividends. Mings crossed from deep on the left and Murphy nodded his 13th goal of the season over Johnstone as the keeper unsuccessfully came out to claim. Johnstone, on loan from Manchester United, was fortunate not to gift the Blues a second in the 54th minute when he rushed off his line and only just beat Nouble to the ball outside the area on the Town right. On the hour Skuse fed Murphy on the left but the striker’s cross was cut out by Tamas just in front of Ebanks-Blake. Town were looking at the most dangerous on the break with the visitors having a lot of the ball but with Gerken not tested. Ebanks-Blake, looking at his sharpest in a Town shirt, saw a 67th minute goalbound strike from the just inside the area clearly deflect wide off Meite’s leg, something referee Scott and his assistant both somehow missed. On 76 Skuse screwed his shot well wide after Williams had won a freekick in a promising position not far outside the area following good work from Ebanks-Blake. The Blues’ lead hadn’t looked under any particular threat but in the 83rd minute the visitors drew level from the penalty spot. Mings was adjudged to have shoved Rovers substitute Duffy as a throw came in from the right and Brown beat Gerken to level. But parity lasted only three minutes. Hyam battled to win the ball on the left — Tamas suffering an injury as they challenged — and found Mings. The left-back fed Williams, who brought it inside and crossed, the ball deflecting to skipper Chambers, who struck a low shot across Johnstone and into the corner of the net for his third goal of the season, his second against Doncaster. There was a scare for the Blues on 89 when Cotterill crossed from the right but Brown headed straight at Gerken. Had he nodded the ball a foot or so either side of the Town keeper the ex-Norwich man would have levelled for the second time. Gerken pushed Duffy’s low shot to his right past his post as Town looked to see out six minutes of injury time. Frazer Richardson replaced Williams for the final few moments. Nouble could have wrapped it up seconds from the end when Ebanks-Blake found him with an inch-perfect cross from the left but keeper Johnstone did well to save. But the Blues weren’t to be denied three points which sees them up to seventh, only goal difference behind sixth-placed Brighton with Reading — who were in the final play-off place going into today — at home to Leicester on Tuesday. While it was never a performance as dominant as the one which saw the Blues win at Huddersfield on Tuesday, Town created the better chances and having gone in front hadn’t looked like conceding when Doncaster netted their equaliser from the spot. In the past a blow such as that might have led to Town sides cracking but this team is made of sterner stuff and Chambers’s winner illustrated the character which has taken them to the edge of the play-offs with just four games to go. Town: Gerken, Chambers (c), Berra, Smith, Mings, Skuse, Hyam, Anderson (Ebanks-Blake 46), Hunt (Nouble 46), Williams (Richardson 90), Murphy. Unused: Loach, Wordsworth, Green, Tabb. Doncaster: Johnstone, Quinn, Meite (Robinson 90), Tamas, Husband (Stevens 80), Furman (Duffy 77), Keegan (c), Coppinger, Cotterill, Brown, Sharp. Unused: Maxted, McCullough, De Val, Middleton, Stevens. Referee: Graham Scott (Oxfordshire). Att: 19,496 (Doncaster: 398).
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