Darren Ferguson blasts ‘unacceptable’ Doncaster display



Posted Wednesday, February 14, 2018 by PA

Darren Ferguson blasts ‘unacceptable’ Doncaster display

Doncaster boss Darren Ferguson labelled Rovers’ performance “unacceptable” as a 4-2 defeat at Walsall stretched their winless run to eight league games.

Rovers fell 4-0 behind as Joe Edwards scored twice in two first-half minutes, Kieron Morris added a third before the break and Amadou Bakayoko netted in the second half.

Doncaster pulled back two late goals through skipper Tommy Rowe and substitute Niall Mason’s penalty but they slipped to 16th, just five points above the drop zone.

Ferguson said: “It’s a terrible night, a terrible result and the first half performance was totally unacceptable really.

“The manner of it was hugely disappointing. I didn’t see that coming if I’m being honest.

“As a manager who has been in charge of hundreds of games you’ve got to expect the unexpected and tonight was one of those cases.

“We didn’t compete. The first two goals were so soft.

“You think ‘get in at half-time and tweak one or two things’ and then the third goal is the killer.

“The first two goals was an example of how the game went. We lost a header easily at the back post and then the centre-half has just been shrugged off the ball for the second goal.

“That was the difference between the two teams tonight. We just didn’t do the basics.

“Our form had been patchy going into the game but what we’ve managed to do is compete and scrap for points.

“That was something I’ve been pleased with but we didn’t do that tonight.”

Walsall leapfrogged Rovers into 15th with a third home win on the bounce and the victory eased pressure on boss Jon Whitney.

He said: “I thought we were excellent. Some of our play was outstanding. We scored four really well-worked goals and I thought we executed the gameplan down to a tee.

“I thought our decision-making was really good and while we are disappointed with conceding the two late goals, the win was the biggest thing.

“It was really important we didn’t let Doncaster get a five-point gap on us and now we have pushed above them. It was a big, big performance.

“We knew this was a big part of the season for us, playing teams that are in and around us.

“And it’s really nice going into Gillingham – who are in really good form as well. To go there off the back of seven points from nine is big because confidence will be really high.

“We are looking up. We wanted to disappoint the teams are below us because they will have come in and looked at the scores and seen that they haven’t pegged us back and we have moved ahead of quite a few of them.”

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