Donny v Forest Match Preview

Forest travel to Doncaster this weekend hoping to reignite their automatic promotion challenge after suffering set backs in their last two away games. Doncaster had been something of a thorn in the side of Forest fans over the last few years but the bogie team tag was put to bed in November when Forest thumped them 4 - 1 at the City Ground.

Time to fight back, again.

Martin Woods is out with a groin problem as is Steve Brooker with an ankle injury. Waide Fairhurst, Adam Lockwood and Byron Webster are all out with foot injuries while Jason Shackell has a hernia.

With 11 goals & 2 assists in just 22 games for Doncaster, Billy 'always scores against Forest' Sharp will have to be watched.

There are no new injury worries for Forest but after another away defeat in their last outing, Billy Davies may once again shuffle his pack looking for that winning formula. Either James Perch or Joel Lynch could be in for a recall in the left back position which would see Cohen move back into his favoured midfield roll & we could see the system revert back to a normal 4-4-2 formation with Blackstock & Earnshaw up front.

The Polish International has scored 3 goals (all crackers) & weighed in with six assists in his 20 starts this season & after being unhappy at not receiving a contract offer yet will be keen to prove his worth.

This will be the 28th league encounter between these two teams with Forest having the better record despite Doncaster being something of a bogie team in recent years. Forest have won 14 of the previous 27 games with Donny winning 6 along with 7 draws. Not surprisingly, Forest have a much better scoring record too with 52 goals in all previous games compared to just 27 for Rovers.

Forest overcame Donny earlier this season with a great 4 - 1 home win but that was their 1st league win against them in 7 games

Donny are the fairest side in the Championship though having committed just 255 fouls so far this season (over 100 less than Forest) & have also as a consequence had he least players booked [25] bizarrely though they have still managed 3 red cards.

Andy Penn of the West Midlands will take charge of this game, he last took charge of a Forest game back in September when we lost the Blackpool smash & grab at the City Ground. He will be assisted by Iain Siddall of Lancashire and Stephen Smith of Lancashire Fourth Official for the day will be Robert Atkin of Lincolnshire

After a bright start to the season Doncaster Rovers have struggled to pick up points lately while Forest have been going through a similar wobble, but Forest don't score or concede many away & Donny don't score or concede many at home so this game has goalless draw written all over it, so with that in mind, I'm going for a 1 - 3 away win.

Tuesday, 16 February 19:45
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