SOUTH YORKSHIRE DERBY
BAILEY DOUBLE LEAVES OWLS SICK AT THE KEEPMOAT
Doncaster 2, Sheffield Wednesday 0. Doncaster: Owen Bailey 6, 16. Att: 11,257. Two goals in ten first-half minutes, and all Wednesday's late pressure could not undo them
Sixteen minutes. That was all it took for Wednesday's afternoon at the Keepmoat to be over, and the long trip home to start feeling longer still.
Owen Bailey did the damage on both occasions. On six minutes a corner was only half-cleared, the ball sat up loose in the box, and the Doncaster midfielder hooked it low past Ashley Maynard-Brewer before a Wednesday shirt could get near him. Ten minutes later Isaac Hutchinson got to the byline and pulled a low ball back, and Bailey arrived to sweep it in from ten yards. Two up, and Rovers were taking the derby by the throat.
It could have been worse before the interval. Hakeeb Adelakun stabbed wide after a long ball over the top, and Leon Ayinde very nearly caught Maynard-Brewer off his line with a cheeky chip. Wednesday, booked through Ali Al-Hamadi as early as the 14th minute, simply could not get a foothold.
Henrik Pedersen acted at the break, sending Mason Burstow on for Jaden Heskey, and the second half belonged to the visitors. Wednesday ended up with nearly two-thirds of the ball and eight efforts on target. The trouble was the man in the Doncaster goal.
Tommy Simkin, on loan from Stoke, had the game of his life. He kept out Barry Bannan, he denied Al-Hamadi, and when Burstow finally worked an opening, Simkin was there again. Every time Wednesday thought the door might be opening, Simkin slammed it shut.
Doncaster sat in and soaked it up. Rovers made four changes in one go on 68 minutes, Robbie Gotts was booked for time-wasting as the clock ran down, and Bailey still had the energy to go close to a hat-trick, his header pushed away by Maynard-Brewer. Billy Mitchell's late booking for dissent summed up Wednesday's frustration.
A large travelling army had made the short journey up the road, and they made their feelings plain at the whistle, booing the Owls off. They had every right. Wednesday had more of the ball and more shots on target, but they were second best in the 16 minutes that decided it.
It leaves Pedersen with questions to answer, about a slow start in a game of this size above all. The Owls had the second half and have the quality in Bannan and company, but they will not win derbies by spotting the hosts a two-goal start.
For Doncaster, a derby win to savour, and a goalkeeper on loan who will not be buying his own drinks in town tonight.
Where it leaves them: Doncaster 20th on 12 points; Sheff Wed 9th on 20 points. Rovers sit 18th on 12 points, two clear of the bottom four. Wednesday are 9th on 19, two points off the play-off places.