Now imagine that each connection missed costs you an hour onto that journey. That would be nowhere near as frustrating as having to endure 120 minutes (and a crucial 2 minutes injury time) of short range passes in and around the box with no shooting! Never had I seen such an unwillingness to take a shot from any Arsenal team. At times, we were inside the six yard box and still trying out clever flicks. Had we taken more shots when the opportunities presented themselves we could have possibly won in normal time.
All credit must go to Doncaster for this one, they were highly impressive for a league one side and even Arsene had admitted to being surprised by the talent they showed. Having taken the lead after just four minutes you would have expected them to sit in two banks of five for the remaining 86, but they still continued pressing forward looking for a second which was refreshing to see.
We were not without our chances in the first half, but the key incident came when Van Persie had to be taken off with a knee injury. This gave Bendtner the chance to shine, and a late header from him almost drew us level before the break. Throughout the second half, the shooting problem remained, until eventually Quincy took and shot which found the net with the help of a large deflection. However, since we seemed to have decided not to shoot for the rest of the game, the tie went into extra time, where a calamitous error from Senderos gave Doncaster the lead again and left us facing the prospect of elimination to a side 45 places below us. Thankfully, in injury time Gilberto popped up to prod an Eboue cross in to take us to penalties.
Luckily for me I could actually see the penalties from the back of the terraces, but people further forward couldn't see a thing with the penalties being up the other end and both teams standing on the half way line! Step up Manuel Almunia whose two penalty saves saw us scrape through to face Wigan in the semi finals.
All in all it was a good night on the terraces, but it could have been so very different!
Manuel Almunia (9) A fantastic double save kept us in the match, and his two penalty saves saw us through.
Pascal Cygan (5) Positioning was once again his down fall. Quote of the year from the Doncaster program who picked him out as a star man (!!!) and wrote "He has had limited first team opportunities but has never let anyone down when called upon" That researcher needs shooting!
Johan Djourou (6) He had a quiet first half before growing into the game, making some good interceptions and keeping the play moving.
Philippe Senderos (5) Played himself into trouble far too often and gave Donnie an early Christmas present when he gave them the simplest of goals!
Emmanuel Eboue (6) A far from great defensive display, but his numerous crosses eventually yielded us a goal.
Alexander Hleb (4) Poor all night for a first teamer in the reserves and capped a poor display by missing a penalty.
Alexandre Song (6) Trapped the ball well and moved us forward, but some poor passing in the final third resulted in good positions being wasted.
Gilberto (5) He seemed incapable of completing a pass, and lost the ball far too easily. Even his late goal and penalty can't cover over that performance.
Quincy (6) He showed a willingness to run at defenders, and got us back on level terms when his deflected shot found the net.
Robin Van Persie (5) His injury meant he limped off in the first half and early suggestions are that he will miss the Christmas program.
Arturo Lupoli (6) Good off the ball running but considering his amazing goal scoring record in the reserves the fact that he wouldn't shoot when presented with a clear chance is mind boggling.
Subs:
Nikolas Bendtner (6) Good movement and pushed into wide areas when required.
Sebastian Larsson (6) Caused them a few problems down the right and took the best penalty of the lot.
Kerrea Gilbert (5) Little impact on the game.