Danny Schofield admitted having sympathy with his players for showing a lack of confidence in sections of the Bank Holiday Monday defeat to Grimsby Town.
Rovers deservedly led through Aidan Barlow’s superb strike but dropped evermore deep in the second half as they looked to hold onto the advantage. The visitors struck twice late in the game to take the victory.
Schofield n how the game played out:
“Particularly in the first half, I thought we were excellent. We deserved to be going in at half time level. In the second half there were a couple of things - I thought we sat too deep where we wanted to play higher and press more aggressively. But I understand with the run of form that we’re on for them to be like that.
“It’s a tough result to take, and the manner we conceded the two goals could have been avoided. Ben Nelson going off as well had an impact on the momentum of the game.
“If you look back at the goals conceded there’s lots of errors in there, mistakes and poor positional play. I think that’s what is costing us.”
On letting the lead slip:
“It always damages confidence when results aren’t positive. It affects individual players and it affects the collective. We have to be strong enough in those moments to come through it together. Football is very demanding, particularly in the run of form we’re in, which is poor - there’s no getting away from that. We have to stick together and keep moving forward.”
On fan frustration:
“Football is about winning matches. We’re not doing that at the moment. The run of form has been poor. I can understand the fans’ frustrations. We can only control what we can control and that’s preparing for the next game and moving forward.”
On the focus for the remaining games:
“It’s always about focusing on the next game. We need to keep fighting for as many points as we can, the players wearing the shirt with pride and giving everything they can until the last game of the season.
“There’s discussions regarding what next season will look like in terms of recruitment and structure and these kind of things.
“It’s about instilling belief all the time. We can’t get away from the situation we’re in at the moment. There’s only way to face it and it’s front-on - accepting the criticism that naturally comes with it, accept it’s going to be a real challenge, to continue fighting, to continue working hard every session and every interaction with the players to make sure we transmit a positivity.”
On Terry Bramall’s pledge of substantial additional funds for the playing budget:
“It’s fantastic for the club to have Terry issue his statement on how he is going to support the club in a financial sense and also with himself. That can only be a positive moving forward for Doncaster Rovers.”