Doncaster v Leeds: Salute the experts at avoiding first-round trauma

Doncaster 2.767/4 v Leeds 2.77/4; The Draw 3.4549/20
Thursday, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports 1

Doncaster

Donny didn't have to win to be heroes on the opening weekend of the League One season. Harry Forrester inadvertently netted when attempting to return the ball for fair-play purposes in the 93rd minute, so they allowed Bury forward Leon Clarke a clear run at goal to equalise.

Their sportsmanship wasn't universally celebrated though - one colleague was a Doncaster victory away from landing his opening-day multiple, so was delighted to see them break the deadlock in injury time, not appreciating the circumstances which dictated that it would be a short-term lead!

2014/15 ended with the Rovers in the lowest Football League position that they had closed a campaign in for 11 years - 13th in League One - but a renewed top-six challenge is anticipated this term.

Leeds

So much has gone on at Leeds since Massimo Cellino first became involved that it feels like a decade has passed. In reality, the controversy-courting Italian has been around for a year and a half, yet that has been long enough to cycle through five managers, with Uwe Rosler the latest to be given a turn.

It was an appointment that veered closer to the "under" end of the "whelming" scale than the "over" one, as he was last witnessed contributing to 2013 FA Cup winners Wigan's relegation to League One, but a 1-1 Elland Road draw with Premier League evacuees Burnley was a decent start.

Match Odds

One of Rosler's main selling points is that he has a healthy amount of cup pedigree having mastered Wigan's run to the FA Cup semi-finals as a Championship side in 2013/14.

The then-holders knocked out three Premier League teams - Crystal Palace, Cardiff and Manchester City (again!) - before exiting on penalties against eventual dethroners Arsenal at Wembley.

On top of that, Leeds have a pretty impressive Capital One Cup record. In the 11 years since their Premier League relegation, they have never once been eliminated in the first round, which is a fine feat given the volume of upsets at this stage of the competition.

Even better, they cleared this fixture in 90 minutes in every single one of those seasons, suggesting that they deserve to be far more convincing favourites than the odds currently relay.

Doncaster's home numbers in the Capital One Cup since 2009 are an unintimidating P8 W3 D2 L3 and Leeds won 3-1 at the Keepmoat Stadium in the 2013/14 edition and 2-1 there in 2011/12. On both of those occasions, the pair shared a division too, whereas the gap has since widened.

Half With Most Goals

There wasn't a first-half goal in either of our protagonists' 1-1 weekend draws, or indeed a strike before the 83rd minute for that matter. Their most recent three head-to-head clashes in Doncaster also all featured more net-rippling after ends were changed than before.

Recommended Bets:

Back Leeds to win @ 2.77/4
Back the second half to have more goals @ 2.26/5