Lacklustre O's beaten by stylish Donny

When a groundsman wins the man of the match award you know you've hardly been at a spectacle of a match.

Step forward Doncaster Rovers groundsman Andy Thompson (@Andy_Thompson21) for getting this game on at all. Along with the help of several Doncaster snow shifters and a barmy Orient one the game went ahead as planned on a perfectly playable surface,  though there might have been a frozen bit here and there. It seemed quite mild too to be fair and a lot warmer and less windy than back down in London.

The trains were running fine on the way up despite the weather and the journey was pretty uneventful, though my companion was most pleased to spot a floating RTV31 locomotive based somewhere around Peterborough. This would ultimately be the highlight of the day.

A floating train in Peterborough.

The walk from station to stadium was quite pretty in the snow and almost picturesque if trading estates and warehouses are your thing. After a bit of a walk where the parking and fast-food gets increasingly expensive, you finally arrive at the Keepmoat Stadium and realise you really are in the middle of nowhere.

The Keepmoat itself is pretty impressive in this era of modern stadia. Sort of a mini St Mary's. It has a Sports Centre backing onto it and that looked quite decent too.

£24 to get in, decent facilities, scalding hot water, comfy seats and plenty of room. They even moved the 200 of us because of the snow which was a nice touch.

A panoramic of the Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster.

Russell Slade decided to rest most of our decent players because they're all absolutely knackered. I can see the logic of this and even thought the team that he sent out would be quite quick on the counter and able to do a bit of damage that way.

Jones and a pretty solid back four in front of him, Smith and Griffith holding and the other 4 using a bit of pace to attack on the break. Simple plan. Not that easy to execute. Charlie MacDonald at 5'7'' and debutant Ade Azeez (on-loan from Charlton) didn't even make a dent in  the lofty Doncaster centre-backs, Moses ran out of steam after a few minutes and Cox might as well have not bothered to turn up.

Random picture of Russell as not much else happened.

With a lack of movement and activity in front of them Smith and Griffith' looked lost and the defence could only hold-on for 19 minutes before it was breached. From their first corner of the game, O's switched off and Rob Jones powered home a fine header.

And that was that really. O's offered absolutely nothing in response. We weren't quite as bad as the BBC stats made out and we did have a couple of hit and hope shots but ultimately it was game over.

On 54 minutes somebody woke Chris Brown up and after being caught offside a couple of times and slotting one wide, he managed to hit the target and make it 2-0 to Doncaster.

During the 2nd half O's introduced Mooney, Cook & then Rowlands but although it shored them up a bit, this was clearly Doncaster's game and there was nothing Orient could do to alter that.

The ref blew the final whistle, 6,500 Doncaster fans went home happy and 200 O's trudged back home knowing that their team had just been beaten by a team that will more than likely get promoted this year.

Doncaster are strong when they need to be and also mix it up by playing some neat football. They're easily the strongest team I've seen this year.

O's Man of the Match - Ben Chorley, played like a captain should and held it together well. It could've been a lot worse without Big Ben at the back.

Orient - Jones, Sawyer, Chorley, Cuthbert, McSweeney (Cook), Cox, Smith, Griffith (Rowland), Odubaju, MacDonald, Azeez (Mooney)