Denaby Utd – Denaby 2  Doncaster Rovers 0 – Rovers’ Poor Form at Denaby.

13 September 1909

Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Monday 13 September 1909

Rovers’ Poor Form at Denaby.

Denaby United 2  Doncaster Rovers 0

Doncaster Rovers flattered but to deceive at Denaby. They opened well, but after the first ten minutes were always struggling against a manifestly superior side. Perhaps it was want of adaptability – for with a wet ground and greasy ball the conditions were difficult – but more probably their failure to produce an even average Midland league form was due to the better method, the greater dash, and the more decisive finish of Denaby, whose victory by two clear goals might easily have been doubled, and then have accurately represented the play.

Save in defence, and even Lindley, well as he shaped in goal, was lucky more than once to escape further disasters, the Rovers’ football did not run on approved lines. A palpable want of balance told its tale. Among the forwards, combination was intermittent and scrappy, with Booth, the centre, a poor pivot, whilst the halves had so much on in trying to stem the Denaby rushes, that their attacking opportunities were more or less restricted. Tingle was the best of the intermediate line, but the form of the Rovers a whole was too bad to be true.

As for Denaby, the side worked throughout with characteristic energy, the half-backs, of whom Glennon stood out the best, held the key to the game. Tireless ever, they left difficult for their back-markers do, and were continually putting their own forwards well in front. Dyal and Blackburn again made a clever right wing. Blackburn’s goal was a ‘‘gem of the first water.”