Doncaster Rovers assistant manager Richard O'Kelly believes that it was a mixture of Leicester City's strength, organisation and their 'streetwise' approach on the pitch is what cost Rovers at least a share of the spoils at the Keepmoat Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Foxes grabbed the win through an early defensive error that allowed Martyn Waghorn the opportunity to beat Neil Sullivan, just seconds after Rovers had come close to opening the scoring through Jordon Mutch.
"We lost the game in the first ten minutes," said Richard after the game.
"They started at a hell of a tempo. They are a very strong and well organised side and they have good players. They are quite streetwise in what they do. They kept the ball in and around our box and I thought that we came through that period quite well and broke away to win a corner. We had the best chance of the first ten minutes with Jordon Mutch's header. Unfortunately, they kicked it down the pitch; you have to give Waghorn credit as he used a lot of strength and we would have liked to have defended better, and we have gone 1-0 down. For five or ten minutes, we were chasing the ball around but I thought after that, we came into the game quite strongly. The last twenty minutes of the first half, we created opportunities and in the second half, their goalkeeper was certainly the busiest."
18 year-old loanee Jordon Mutch impressed on his first start for Doncaster Rovers, coming in for the injured Brian Stock who today sees a specialist regarding a recurrence of a back injury.
"The boy has got a big future ahead of him. He's an intelligent lad, very interested in the game of football and he's always looking for ways in which to improve himself. I felt that he acquitted himself well tonight. Whether he'll be challenging for a regular place in the starting eleven, we'll see about that. He came in tonight; a tough game to come into because of the quality of Leicester City, and he did well."
Rovers are back in action on Saturday afternoon, taking on Crystal Palace at the Keepmoat Stadium (3:00pm KO) and O'Kelly reveals that the squad could be bolstered with the return of players from injury.
"Shelton Martis rejoined training today, Martin Woods stepped up training, Adam Lockwood has joined in training today, and Sean McDaid has rejoined training as well today. Waide Fairhurst is also back in training - so there are quite a few bodies coming back into contention."
