By Boris Mellor
December 22 2005

Doncaster remains unbeaten by Premiership opposition in this years Carling Cup, but they went out in the penalty shootout. They played magnificently and gave a young Arsenal team quite a fright.

 Within four minutes they were a goal up, a great goal, but Senderos and Almunia were suspect. One of them should have got far tighter on the scorer, and the ball went under Almunia’s despairing arm.

This was a tremendous game and Doncaster certainly had the first half, it could be complained that Arsenal’s youngsters were not playing well but that would not do full justice to Doncaster who played with pace, good passing and tight team work. They played as a unit, whilst Arsenal struggled to find shape. However Lupoli was unlucky to have a penalty appeal turned down. Nonetheless but for the brilliance of Almunia the Gunners may have gone in two nil down at half – time.

Van Persie had hardly a shot, and went off injured twelve minutes before half time. His replacement Bendtner made the Gunners more physical and gave the attack more power and effect. For much of the second half Arsenal dominated as the youngsters adapted to the furious pace of a match against giant killers. Wenger has never had the ignominy of suffering a giant killing, but it certainly looked on, as much of the Gunners shooting was wayward. Indeed Lupoli was miss-hitting his chances all night. It was not until the 84^th minute he began to hit the target. Fortunately Quincy was prepared to have a go on the 63rd minute, and his shot was helped in by a deflection off a Donny defender. Not long after Quincy went off injured, the remaining attack was now just the youth team.

The match continued to seesaw backward and forwards, and Almunia had made incredible saves in both halves. In extra time Doncaster scored against the run of play as Senderos miss-controlled the ball on the goal line. Now it looked certain Doncaster would win and they tried to run the clock down. Unfortunately, for them, they lost the ball in the Arsenal half. The ball was switched to Eboue who did an impression of Overmars in his prime, speeding down the wing and crossing. Gilberto thundered down the middle and flung himself backward to poke the ball past the goalie. With only 30 seconds to go an almost certain Donny victory was stopped in its tracks.

Gilberto showed his respect for the Captains armband by taking the first penalty which he scored, followed by Larsson and Cygan, it was Hleb who missed the first Arsenal pen. But three goals were enough thanks to two saves by Almunia, one that was from a well-hit penalty, plus another penalty that hit the post.

Arsenal nearly slipped on this banana skin; and will have to put out a far stronger team for Wigan, but all credit to Doncaster for making it such a classic tie. And all credit to Almunia and Captain Gilberto and their band of youngsters who never gave up.

Man of the Match

Almunia – his saves kept Arsenal in the game, and seized the initiative in the penalty shootout.