Ferguson hails big win after Doncaster see off Bradford

Darren Ferguson declared his delight at a “big win” for Doncaster after they saw off Bradford 2-0.

Having not played last weekend, Donny’s cushion over Sky Bet League One’s bottom four had been cut to four points.

But two goals from John Marquis helped them to victory over Bradford and stretched their margin for error to seven points with nine games to go.

“It’s a big win for us,” Ferguson said. “The last two home games have brought five goals, two clean sheets and six points.

“It was all about the result, nothing else. It’s the business end of the season, that is what it’s about.

“At this stage of the season there is a lot riding on the games.

“The pitches are not in great condition. You’re not going to get classic games, you’re really not.

“It’s all about finding a way of winning games and that is what we did.”

Ferguson was delighted with the manner of the two goals, which saw excellent deliveries from Niall Mason and Alfie Beestin.

He said: “The key was two pieces of quality. It was two really good goals and the best two pieces of quality of the night.

“It was a great ball in from Niall for the first goal and it made it look easy for John but it wasn’t. He kept his composure and hit the target.

“The second goal was an outstanding counter-attack, a brilliant pass from Alfie.

“Two pieces of real quality have won us the game.”

Simon Grayson said Bradford’s performance in the defeat was the story of their season.

Grayson was left to bemoan a lack of killer instinct from his side as they slipped to the 2-0 loss, which dealt a further blow to their play-off aspirations.

He said: “The performance probably summed up the season, very good in patches and not so good and where we are in terms of results in the second half.

“In the first half we asked a lot of questions of them. We got the ball out wide, we got crosses in but weren’t ruthless enough to take those opportunities.

“In the second half you’re frustrated because we stopped doing the things that we’d done well. Then we looked a very average team.

“When the first goal goes in, it does knock your confidence. But the only way to restore that is to have the inner belief that you are good players.

“We’re giving them as much encouragement to go and perform as anybody.

“But you’ve got to keep doing the basics right. Why change the game plan that we had worked so well in the first half?

“Then we conceded the goal and stopped doing the same things. We didn’t ask enough questions of their back four, we didn’t put enough balls in the box.”