Darren Ferguson felt his side created enough chances to stay in the FA Cup, after bowing out of the competition at the third-round stage.
Calvin Andrew’s first half header sent Rochdale through, and left the Rovers manager thinking of what might have been after several missed opportunities after the break.
He said: “I think there were a lot of good things about our performance, particularly in the second half, but we’re very disappointed to be out of the cup given how much we threw at them.
“That’s two games on the bounce that we’ve conceded soft goals and it gave them something to hold on to, we had a lot of pressure and maybe if we had that at 0-0 it would have been a different result.
“The first goal was always going to be important given the opposition, it was their only effort on target and we need to stop that from happening.”
Ferguson reckoned his side were much better after half-time, following some tactical alterations at the interval based on what he had seen in the opening 45 minutes.
He added: “There were a couple of things we changed after the first half, we wanted to stop Andrew and Cannon causing us problems.
“We made the changes and as a manager you’re then hoping that someone can produce that bit of quality, Alfie Beestin had a great chance and John Marquis hit a post so it just wasn’t going for us.”
Rovers are back in Sky Bet League One action at the Keepmoat Stadium on Saturday when Plymouth Argyle visit. Tickets are available from the Box Office on 01302 762576 or by going to tickets.clubdoncaster.co.uk.