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With three wins from four fixtures and a top-half position in the league table, confidence should be returning to the Doncaster players following one or two disappointments in the early weeks of the season. A home win over London Skolars and an away victory at Gateshead Thunder in the space of six days propelled the Dons up to fifth place in the Championship One table, but a cautionary note being that in both fixtures a 26-point lead was all but wittled away by the oposition as each second half progressed. I'm sure that Head Coach Tony Miller will have been impressing on the players the need to concentrate for the full eighty minutes.
Next up is a Friday evening trip to the Flyde coast and a fixture against in-form Blackpool Panthers, who not content with being unbeaten in Championship One, caused one of a couple of shocks in the fourth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup last weekend with a 24-18 comeback win over Championship side Whitehaven having trailed 18-6 at half time. Whilst in terms of shocks it wasn't quite of the magnitude of Barrow's win at Castleford, it was still a performance which moved coach Martin Crompton to state that it was 'the best performance he had been involved with by a mile'. When you consider a playing career with such as Wigan and Warrington, that is high praise indeed.
Crompton is now starting to get something like a settled side with former Leigh Centurions and Workington Town half back Carl Forber and Tom Hemingway signed from Huddersfield Giants pre-season pulling the strings behind a pack that boasts prop forwards Neil Holland (on loan from Wigan Warriors) and Andy Hobson (ex Leigh and Halifax), much-travelled hooker John Clough, who numbers Salford, Halifax and Leigh among his former clubs and former Saint Helens reserve Kurt Haggerty, who is currently operating at loose forward.
There are certainly points to be scored by a back division which includes try-machine Martin Ainscough, winger or centre Paul Ballard who was playing at Super League level with Celtic Crusaders last season, full back Jonny Leather, another Wigan Warriors loanee John Walker and former Doncaster winger Damien Munro. Also likely to feature at some point is utility Paul Anderson, another former-Don from the John Stankevitch era, who can play in the backs but is more likely to be used in the forwards.
The Dons have been rocked by the news that early season revelation Grant Edwards requires a complete knee reconstruction and will miss the remainder of the season. With Danny Allen having returned to Featherstone Rovers and Craig Fawcett still a couple of weeks away from a return, the onus on finding a playmaker came to the fore oncemore for the Club and they have responded with the loan signing of Dewsbury Rams Scottish International utility back Rob Lunt who has a number of games under his belt at stand off and had a brief spell with the Dons at Belle Vue. Also joining the Club from Dewsbury are former Featherstone hooker Paul Hughes and prop or second row forward Liam Crawley. All three look set to be considered for the visit to Blackpool, as does Scott Johnson, now reported to have recovered fully from injury.
It's not an ideal scenario playing at Fylde on a Friday night but that is the hand the Club were dealt and hopefully a number of the Dons faithful will still be able to make the trip and show their support.
Don't forget, for those who can't make the game, you can stay in touch with our live score service. Click Here
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| The Co-operative Championship One 2010 |
|
Team |
Pts |
+/- |
| 1 |
Hunslet |
55 |
505 |
| 2 |
Oldham |
52 |
256 |
| 3 |
York |
39 |
83 |
| 4 |
Blackpool |
38 |
430 |
| 5 |
Rochdale |
37 |
132 |
| 6 |
South Wales |
34 |
108 |
| 7 |
Workington |
33 |
-4 |
| 8 |
Swinton |
33 |
-11 |
| 9 |
Doncaster |
28 |
-70 |
| 10 |
London |
10 |
-456 |
| 11 |
Gateshead |
-2 |
-973 |
Full Table 
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