Manager Grant McCann felt his side were unlucky not to turn one point into three after Saturday’s goalless draw with Portsmouth in Sky Bet League One.
Pompey had won all four of their league games prior to their visit to the Keepmoat Stadium, and McCann says the point was not a true reflection of their performance against one of the division’s early pace-setters.
“We were the best team on the pitch by a mile, we’ve had some great chances to score but we just haven’t taken them, we’re not worried though because we have a great group of players who will score a lot of goals,” he said.
“It’s saying something when you come away from the game feeling like it’s two points dropped against a team that have won all four games before this, we feel like we dominated the game and controlled it for large parts.
“I’ve got a really good group here, I’m really pleased with how they’ve played against one of the league’s top sides, we’re just disappointed we couldn’t get it over the line for the fans today, they were brilliant, and we just wish would could have won three points for them.”
Late drama in the game saw Ben Whiteman take the gloves of Marko Marosi with 10 minutes of the affair remaining, as the Rovers keeper was dismissed for handling outside of the area, but McCann was full of praise for his make-shift goalkeeper.
“You can never really prepare for something like that, I think it’s just whoever fancied it on the day really, we wouldn’t have wanted one of the centre halves to have gone in because that might have left us exposed but credit must go to Ben for stepping up,” he added.
“They tried to get balls forward towards the end of the game, but the back four and Ben dealt with it brilliantly, they saw the game out well and credit must go to everybody that was out there.
“He wanted to do it for the team, respect goes to him for going in goal, and in a way it let us have John Marquis still up the pitch and we were still able to cause them problems late on, I think that reflects brilliantly on my side.”
Rovers face Blackpool in the second round of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday at the Keepmoat Stadium, secure your seat now from tickets.clubdoncaster.co.uk.