DONCASTER 2 CITY 1

EOIN Doyle and David Ball jumped up and down as David Hopkin ramped up his one-sided conversation with the fourth official.

City’s frustration hung heavily in the south Yorkshire air.

But Lady Luck once again strode past without so much as a glance in their direction.

These are terribly tough times to be a Bantam.

Five losses on the bounce now equals the slump at the start of the year that prompted the owners to dispatch with Stuart McCall, who incidentally is doing very nicely thank you at his new gig with Scunthorpe.

That’s 18 league defeats in 2018 – more than anybody else.

The seven setbacks so far already equal the total for the 2016/17 season when McCall guided City within one win of the Championship.

Throw in 13 of the squad currently out of action and it’s a gloomy outlook for even the most positive fan.

Hopkin still maintains he will turn this round – a faith that every supporter should cling on to during a dark period when things look to be getting worse before they get better.

But it remains desperately tough for the new man to revive a bunch currently limited in numbers and confidence.

It’s at times like these that you can do with a little break; something to show that the fates are at least prepared to nod your way.

Instead Hopkin got Martin Coy, a referee who declined to see the obvious.

The man from County Durham, a late replacement for original choice Graham Salisbury, must have been the only one in the Keepmoat Stadium who did not witness Doyle man-handled by Joe Wright in the Doncaster box.

Home boss Grant McCann’s post-match assessment that it “could have gone either way” was not fooling anyone. He knew, as we all did, that it was as clear a foul as anything.

Sean Scannell’s cross was manoeuvred into Doyle’s path by Ball. The City skipper shaped to shoot, only to find himself shoved to the floor by the centre half.

But Coy saw nothing untoward; the fourth official and nearby assistant referee remained deaf to the protests of Hopkin and an incredulous Bantams bench.

And within five minutes City, heads still gone by the inaction from the officials, found themselves two down and effectively out of it.

A late rally showed the spirit that Hopkin insists is still there despite this wretched run. But without the leg-up of that penalty three minutes into the second half, the hill remained too high to climb.

Some will say that deflecting the blame onto the referee is the oldest excuse to hide a team’s short-comings.

Coy wasn’t responsible for City conceding two more goals; he didn’t fail to react to several inviting crosses that fizzed untouched across the Doncaster six-yard box; his wasn’t the unmarked header that flashed over the bar from close range.

But big moments like that matter, especially when you’re in a scenario of scrabbling for any kind of result. A potential momentum-changer instead merely extended the status quo.

It was a day marked to pay tribute to Stephen Darby from a club still in shock from the news that he has the fatal motor neurone disease.

City have got a lot wrong on and off the pitch in recent months but the gesture to warm up in shirts bearing his name and the number two was a fantastic one.

It underlined the solidarity that still exists with one of their greatest warriors of the modern era; a love emphatically broadcast to the world by the booming chorus of his anthem “Stephen Darby baby” in the second minute from the 1,200 travelling fans.

How they wanted to see a performance fitting of a player who never shirked a challenge in his five years at Valley Parade.

“There’s only one Stephen Darby”, they sang. How City could do with 11 of them right now.

A stirring second-half fightback to grab at least a share of the spoils would have been a public thank-you to someone who rescued countless points with that goalline radar.

Sadly, the script was re-written once Coy waved play on.

Let’s not kid ourselves that Doncaster were completely indebted to the man in the middle for a third straight victory that lifted them up to third.

They were always more clinical and possessed more self-belief going forward; the front three of John Marquis, Mallik Wilks and the ageless James Coppinger were a constant menace with their clever inter-linking and movement.

Marquis took his goal tally for the season to seven with the Doncaster double – that’s as many as City have mustered in total.

Remember this time last year when the Bantams looked like scoring from every set-piece?

Currently, though, it’s a tale of opportunities wasted.

Nat Knight-Percival should have marked his 100th City game with a second-minute opener. How appropriate it would have been at the exact moment the fans were showing their personal appreciation to Darby.

Instead, Jack Payne’s inviting corner drifted tantalisingly past his outstretched head.

Anthony O’Connor followed suit later in the half. Another decent delivery from Payne and he powered a header over the bar with the goal gaping.

There were other close calls as Scannell and O’Connor put crosses in the mix that were begging to be buried.

Doncaster showed City how it should be done despite Richard O’Donnell’s best efforts to twice deny Marquis as well as Wilks.

But the keeper had no chance when Coppinger’s run set up Marquis to smash home from the edge of the box.

O’Donnell again rescued City to keep out Andy Butler’s header before the home skipper nodded the rebound wide.

Then came the key moment on 48 minutes as Wright somehow escaped for his clumsy challenge on Doyle. Coy later told Hopkin he thought the forward had dived – so why not book him if that was the case?

Doncaster cashed in on their lifeline by swiftly grabbing a well-worked second; six passes finished clinically once more by Marquis.

Hopkin switched to 4-2-4 as Doyle hit the post before sub George Miller pounced on Jim O’Brien’s long ball and the hesitancy of home keeper Marko Marosi to halve the deficit.

But City could not find a second and were left empty-handed once again, dropping a place to third-from-bottom in the process.