Doncaster Rovers U18s suffer friendly defeat at Club Thorne Colliery

Gary McSheffrey’s team came up against a stern challenge with Thorne proving to be an experienced outfit.

They went behind early on when Aiden Marshall headed home from former Rovers scholar Matt Gains’ corner.

Despite having been largely camped inside their own half, Rovers rallied and got back on level terms when Jak Whiting got his first goal for the club with an emphatic finish at the far post following some excellent link-up play involving Alex Fletcher and Faris Khan.

Just three minutes later, however, Thorne re-took the lead when Shay Evans-Booth converted from the penalty spot after Corie Cole was penalised for a foul inside the box.

A plethora of substitutions occurred at half time and Rovers’ youngsters got on the front foot in the second half.

They had already gone close through Dan Wilds and Jack Goodman before an unnamed trialist furthered his pre-season tally to four goals with a close-range equaliser on 73 minutes.

There was to be no turnaround in the scoreline though because a defensive collapse resulted in Thorne bagging three goals in the space of five minutes with Callum Verhees, Danny Green and Dom Mellor all finding the target.

Rovers mustered up a late response through Jack Raper but improvement will be needed if they are to get anything from their season opener away to Lincoln City at the weekend.