SOCCER/Doncaster Rovers - 3 Aston Villa - 0: The opening goal might have come thanks to a penalty, but, make no mistake, there was nothing remotely fortunate about Doncaster Rovers' passage into the quarter-finals of the English League Cup last night. The League One team not only out-fought their Premiership opponents, they thoroughly outplayed them. In fact, they humiliated them.
Such was the anticipation surrounding this fixture that the vast majority of the biggest crowd seen at Belle Vue for 30 years were already in place a good hour before kick-off.
If the proximity of the crowd was unfamiliar to the visitors, they must have been well prepared for the home team's 100mph start. What they might not have been ready for was that Rovers would play with skill as well as pace, with midfielders Sean Thornton and Ricky Ravenhill as prepared to use their wide men, James Coppinger and Michael McIndoe, as hit long balls for the forwards Lewis Guy and Paul Heffernan.
The Premiership team, playing largely on the break, made the first chance, Juan Pablo Angel volleying straight at the Doncaster goalkeeper Dino Seremet, but Rovers were playing like a team who believed, rather than hoped, they would win.
McIndoe had already squandered one decent shooting opportunity when, to general disbelief, although it turned out to be a correct decision, a linesman decided Coppinger's cross from the right had hit Liam Ridgewell's hand. McInd-oe sent Thomas Sorensen the wrong way from the spot.
Villa almost struck back immediately, Gareth Barry first shooting wide and then heading Milan Baros's cross just the wrong side of a post.
Only a desperate Jlloyd Samuel lunge prevented Ravenhill putting the home team two clear, though full-back Dave Mulligan came within a whisker of inadvertently handing the visitors an equaliser.
Given the open nature of the game it was hard to imagine the second-half would be goal-less, and with the temperature falling below freezing, nobody wanted extra-time.
Sure enough a second goal was not long in coming, and it was Doncaster who deservedly got it. Ridgewell, in front of his penalty area, passed to - well, nobody.
Guy reacted first, pushing the ball towards Heffernan and he ran into the penalty area to beat Sorensen with consummate ease.
David O'Leary brought on Kevin Phillips and switched to 4-3-3, but there was an awful lot of gesturing and finger-pointing going on out there.
But former Sunderland midfielder Thornton completed the rout with an audacious looping effort in the 79th minute which deflected off Ridgewell and dropped under Sorensen's bar.
Guardian Service
DONCASTER: Seremet, Fenton, Stephen Roberts, Foster, Mulligan, Coppinger, Thornton, Ravenhill, McIndoe, Guy (Green 87), Heffernan. Subs not used: Budtz, Fortune-West, Oji, Neil Roberts. Goals: McIndoe 20 pen, Heffernan 53, Thornton 79.
ASTON VILLA: Sorensen, Hughes, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Samuel (Phillips 59), Milner, McCann, Davis, Barry, Angel, Baros. Subs not used: Hendrie, Taylor, De la Cruz, Moore. Booked: Samuel.
Referee: M Dean (Cheshire).
