DONCASTER: UNITED EXIT CUP ON PENALTIES

DONCASTER: UNITED EXIT CUP ON PENALTIES

United suffer shoot-out defeat after 1-1 draw...

DONCASTER 1 (Williams pen 31), UNITED 1 (Cook 14) (Doncaster win 4-2 on penalties)

Doncaster team:  Stuckmann, McCullough, Butler, Jones, Taylor-Sinclair, Evina (Tyson 73), Wellens, Middleton (Main 101), Forrester, Coppinger, Williams. Subs: Marosi, Lund, MacKenzie, P.McKay, Whitehouse.

United team:  Turnbull, Berardi, Bellusci, Cooper, Taylor, Wootton, Cook, Mowatt (Byram 74), Doukara (Murphy 67), Dallas (Wood 67), Antenucci. Subs: Silvestri, Bamba, Phillips, Erwin.

Referee:  K Hill

Sent off: Cook (United)

Att: 8,361, (3,394 United)

United’s Capital One Cup campaign began with a Yorkshire derby at Doncaster Rovers’ Keepmoat Stadium, and head coach Uwe Rosler made five changes from the opening day draw with Burnley five days earlier.

Mirco Antenucci was rewarded with a start after being on target against the Clarets, while Ross Turnbull, Liam Cooper, Scott Wootton and Souleymane Doukara also came in, with Cooper captaining the team.

It was a frantic start to proceedings in front of a lively crowd, with United backed by a large away following of over 3,000, but chances were scarce during the opening exchanges as both sides looked to find their feet.

That was until the 14th-minute mark when Antenucci was sent hurtling down the left. His curling effort was pushed away by a fine Thorsten Stuckmnann save but only as far as Lewis Cook, who gratefully tucked away his first senior goal for the club from close-rangfe

Doncaster looked to mount a quick response and only some heroic defending from Giuseppe Bellusci, hacking the ball off the line with an overhead kick to keep out James Coppinger’s lob, kept United ahead on 21 minutes.

At the opposite end, Alex Mowatt was inches away from connecting with Doukara’s dangerous low cross inside the area, but the hosts managed to pull themselves level from the penalty spot on the half-hour mark.

Wootton was adjudged to have tripped Cedric Evina inside the area and Andy Williams dispatched the resulting spot-kick, squeezing the ball into Turnbull’s bottom left corner.

United were reduced to 10 men after 37 minutes after goalscorer Cook was shown a straight red card for a challenge of Doncaster’s Aaron Taylor-Sinclair.

Coppinger could have fired Rovers ahead on the stroke of half-time after bursting through the United defence, but the scoreline remained level at the break as he fired a low effort wide of Turnbull’s post.

Both sides re-emerged unchanged and it was Doncaster who enjoyed the better of the early second-half exchanges, Coppinger blasting over from distance before Williams forced Turnbull into a superb flying save to push away his strike on the turn.

With United seeing little of the ball since the restart, Rosler was prompted into his first changes of the evening after 67 minutes, introducing Luke Murphy and Chris Wood in place of Doukara and Dallas.

Turnbull comfortably held Rob Jones’ header after the defender rose to meet a long ball inside the area, before United’s third and final change saw Sam Byram replace Mowatt in midfield.

The hosts began to pile on the pressure as the game entered the final 10 minutes, with Williams turning a back-post header narrowly wide shortly after Coppinger had seen his low effort deflected behind.

United were just about holding on and Turnbull continued to have his work cut out between the sticks as he palmed away a strike from substitute Nathan Tyson before Harry Forrester smashed over the rebound.

Coppinger lashed wide before a last-gasp United break almost resulted in late drama, but the game headed into extra-time.

Leeds made a bright start to extra-time and could have retaken the lead within five minutes of kick-off as Antenucci strode forward before slotting Byram through on goal, but a strong right hand from Stuckmann pushed away his effort.

Cooper then blazed over from inside the area after being teed up by Wootton as Rosler’s men dominated the first period of extra-time. On the stroke of half-time, Antenucci almost squeezed the ball home but Stuckmann cut a relieved figure as he fumbled the striker’s low effort onto the post.

There proved to be no way through in extra-time and a shoot-out was needed to separate the sides. Antenucci and Murphy both dispatched their spot-kicks but misses from Byram and Wood and a 100 per cent conversion rate from Doncaster saw the hosts progress with a 4-2 win on penalties.

X