Great expectations for City are snuffed out on night of errors

Cast your mind back to mid September and Doncaster Rovers inflicted Norwich’s first away defeat of the season – and we’ve only lost twice on the road since.
That in itself shows what a good team Doncaster are and the fact we held them to a 1-1 draw at Carrow Road tonight seems to have been lost among the great expectations this season has garnered.
I was at the Keepmoat Stadium that night, bizarrely I was on my honeymoon. City were torn apart by James Coppinger and although they staged a late salvo, the home side were worthy winners.
Since then out paths have gone pretty much the opposite way and Rovers arrived in Norfolk with such a depleted side that their chairman is believed to have tried to get the game called off.
Rovers did show up and with the game plan to frustrate City, they did a great job. Had this been a visit from Leeds or Nottingham Forest we’d have marvelled at their neat football and their astute tactics. Because it was Doncaster who’d lost 6-0 at home to Ipswich last week, we expected them to roll over and die.
But they didn’t. They contributed the perfect tactics, playing just Jason Euell up front and using the likes of John Oster down the channels to play a neat passing game. They didn’t take many risks and that made for an incredibly dull opening half an hour.
Nothing of note happened – Grant Holt picked up an early injury and spent most of that time hobbling around before popping up on the half hour when he knocked home Adam Drury’s long pass.
Drury should have made it 2-0 before half-time when he found himself in the penalty box but shot wide. That was pretty much it for the first half, Doncaster didn’t do an awful lot and Carrow Road seemed subdued but content this would be a routine win.
The fact that didn’t happen was the big surprise. Doncaster continued to do little, but it was one of those nights when nothing went City’s way. Fluid off the ball runs went wrong, simple throughballs didn’t happen and it was no surprise that Doncaster got back on level terms in the last ten minutes.
Rovers won a fortunate corner when the ball somehow trickled over the line and from that corner, Drury headed into his own net.
The reaction of the crowd was strange. Maybe we’ve been treated to too many dramatic finishes this season – but at the final whistle most Canary followers just got up and left. When some of the City players applauded the Jarrold Stand at the end of the game. There was no applauding back.
All credit to Doncaster, they did a job on us. Following City really is as unpredictable as ever.