Doncaster Rovers suffered their heaviest league defeat of the season, after a spectacular Adam Johnson double galvanised Middlesbrough to a 4-1 victory.

Despite a 30-yard stunner from young debutant Jordon Mutch, Rovers were condemned to defeat at the Keepmoat for the first time since October; however the Rovers boss was left pleased with his side's attitude in difficult circumstances.

"I thought that we were well beaten," said a frank Sean after the encounter.

"Sometimes you need to hold your hands up and I thought that they (Middlesbrough) were excellent. I thought that we started really well; they came here with a five-man midfield and I thought that we negated that really well and we forced them to switch a little bit. Middlesbrough have some quality players and they were well organised. I thought that they worked extremely hard without the ball."

"We were a bit depleted tonight, but I can't fault people's efforts. We tried to do the right thing and we never gave up. Everybody worked extremely hard and we had one or two opportunities that, if they go in, it would have been a different game. It was a quality strike to open proceedings and a quality strike to finish proceedings. I could see why Chelsea would want to pay five million quid for Adam Johnson."

"I'm pleased with the attitude of the players; all they can do is the right things. The scoreline sometimes doesn't matter despite that fact that it is what you will be judged on. All you can do is the right things. When you are one goal up and things are going well, everybody wants to do them. When you are two goals down and things are difficult then you look to see whether people are prepared to do what they do in training. I thought that to a man they were excellent and I have no complaints for their attitude - I just think that we were beaten by a better team."

Rovers were without a number of key players, with injuries mounting up ahead of the clash with Boro.

"Both Dean Shiels and Brian Stock were struggling with ankle problems and John Oster is suffering with a hamstring problem. James Hayter was feeling unwell before the game - it's a long season and we need to protect people as much as we can."