Gaffer labels derby day defeat as "a big opportunity missed."
Darren Ferguson was frustrated with the way in which his Doncaster side lacked “urgency” in the Boxing Day defeat to near neighbours Scunthorpe United.Rovers were edged out by Paddy Madden’s first half goal which halted a run of six games in all competitions without defeat.
“We didn’t get the tempo or urgency about us that I felt we can do against an experienced side,” bemoaned Ferguson.
“They go ahead and it’s a soft, sloppy goal and we never really got going in the first half.
“I feel that Scunthorpe came here knowing that they would be in for a tough game – we’ve been going well, playing well and scoring goals – but I said to my players in there that they would have thought after 15 minutes “Oh, it’s quite comfortable”. They’ve got an experienced team and they probably snuffed it out. It’s a hard one to explain why we lacked that urgency in the first half.
Ferguson – despite seeing Cameron Stewart’s last gap effort smack the crossbar – was not prepared to hide from the fact that with an attendance of close to 9,000 at the Keepmoat Stadium, that an opportunity to impress had been squandered.
“You’ve got to be the team that takes the ascendancy and I don’t think we did that, it was a really big opportunity missed,” said Ferguson.
“Second half was better and we’ve hit the bar late on, we had the ascendancy about us and showed a little bit but you can’t have the 45 minutes like we did in the first half, particularly today and particularly in a derby.
“When we showed any sort of tempo or urgency then we created problems – (Nathan) Tyson’s run, Cedric (Evina)’s crossing – but it was nowhere near what we expected and what we can perform like.
“My main focus and concentration has to be my own player’s performance. They know that we have to be better than that and we have to have that mentality to keep going and going.”