Manager Grant McCann says his side need to take their chances following Tuesday night’s narrow defeat to Sunderland in Sky Bet League One.
Chris Maguire’s goal just two minutes into the second half was the difference between the two sides at the Keepmoat Stadium, but despite the result, McCann was upbeat about the performance of his players in the game.
“The difference is that they’ve taken their chance against us, we didn’t take ours, that’s the difference in a tight game like this one was, against two teams that are trying to get out of this league, and one slip has cost us really which is disappointing,” he said.
“We could’ve been two up at half-time really, Mallik Wilks and Matty Blair have both had two great chances, when you look back at it they’ve just not managed to get it out of their feet, we have to realise you can’t shoot straight at the keeper and expect it to go in.
“Sunderland started the game a lot better than us in the first 15 minutes or so, then for the next 30 minutes we were a lot better than them, they then got the goal at the right time, we’ve gone up the other end and had a lot of shots, but it’s just not come off for us.”
Ahead of the game with the Black Cats, both sides were in the play-off positions following good starts to the season, and McCann believes his side will be right up there come the end of the season after a brave performance against one of the early season favourites for promotion.
“I gave a message to the boys after the game, it would be easy for me to stand in front of them and say that’s the difference between us and the top teams, but I feel after that that we are just as good as them,” he added.
“I expected us to stand us physically to them, I thought we matched the so-called biggest club in this league, and there were some really good performances from my players, not just individually but as a collective as well, they should be proud of how well they played here.
“We want these big games here at the Keepmoat Stadium every week, 12,000 or so here for every game, this is what we’re striving to do because the fans were excellent, that only comes when you get to the next level, we want to keep working hard to make that happen.”