Manager Paul Dickov says there is plenty for his team to play for.
Paul Dickov said he had “no regrets” over what he said to his players in the aftermath of last week’s 3-0 defeat to Bradford City at Keepmoat Stadium on Good Friday.That defeat – coupled with a frenetic 3-2 loss to Sheffield United on Tuesday – seems to have all but signalled the end for Doncaster’s play-off aspirations.
“I’ve still not forgotten about Friday and it’s still quite raw in me,” said a passionate Dickov.
“Usually straight after a game I say things I might think about and regret over the weekend purely because it is in the heat of the moment and the passion comes out but I don’t regret anything I said to them on Friday.
“It’s probably the worst rollicking they’ve had and I don’t like doing it because I see them every day and they’re a good, hard working and honest bunch and it shouldn’t need me to go off my head as I did.”
Dickov has called for more of the spirit of Bramall Lane to end the season strongly and says there is a lot to play for.
“A lot of players are playing for contracts here, elsewhere, and ultimately livelihoods so need to show plenty of pride.
“I believe there are still some twists and turns to come – we’ve made it difficult for ourselves – and we need to finish as strongly as possible.
“Every time you go out and pull on a Doncaster Rovers shirt, you’ve got to make sure you give your all and I don’t think I got that in some of the second half against Bradford.”
Rovers next encounter is at home on Saturday against play-off chasing Rochdale, whom Rovers conquered 3-1 in November at Spotland.
“I’ve got so much respect for Keith Hill and the job he’s done at Rochdale. Defensively we’ve got to be bang on because they’ve got players who can hurt us. We have to carry on from Tuesday night and I’ll be disappointed if we don’t,” the Scot reiterated.
“We’ve got to cut out the stupid errors though because we made three on Tuesday and got punished.
“The performance against Bradford until the first goal was okay – not our fluent best – but we just crumbled after that. I can take players not being at their best and that’s going to happen but what I couldn’t stomach was the way that they caved in after that.”