assessment of the 3-0 defeat at the hands of Cardiff City at
Ninian Park, citing the performance as the poorest since he
arrived as manager
"We didn't turn up," the Rovers manager said frankly following
the game.
"It's taken us thirty-five games to put in a performance that
was as poor as, well, since I've been here, I think I don't
remember another game where for the whole ninety minutes we
never looked like the team that we can be.If I knew the
reason, then I would have sorted it but it's very
disappointing. It was all there for everybody to play for.
We've walked off games before and got beaten and taken a lot
of positives out of it and I am struggling to find positives
in this one."
"In the first ten minutes all we did was give the ball away.
We realise in this division, possession of the ball or how you
get possession of the ball and what you do with it is
important, so we work hard to get possession of the ball, but
if we give it away - they (Cardiff) are too good a team for us
to expect them to give it straight back. They were at home and
probably have the best home record in the Championship and we
made it an uphill task. You hope then to get through without
conceding, but then we conceded because we gave the possession
away. The second goal killed us; the second goal from the free
kick, we didn't mark properly and - okay, it was a fantastic
finish - but if you give people the opportunity to finish like
that (then they will). We haven't been doing that lately, but
I have no complaints and I'm looking forward to getting back
on the training pitch on Monday and getting back to basics."
Sean updated the Doncaster Rovers official site with the status of the
two Rovers players who suffered ailments whilst in the Welsh
capital. Paul Heffernan was left out of the squad, whilst
Brian Stock was replaced by Mark Wilson 34 minutes into the
contest.
"Paul had been sick all night and Brian woke up with a back
spasm. We stuck two injections in him and in hindsight, we
shouldn't have started him but he is an important player for
us. You just hope that once he gets into the game, it frees
itself up, but that wasn't the case. You never know with
Brian, he could wake up tomorrow and be okay. Paul should be
okay and he has probably just eaten something and hopefully in
a couple of days, he'll be fine. Touch wood, they should both
be okay for Tuesday."
The game saw new signing Dean Shiels get just under 30 minutes
under his belt and his new manager believes that he looks set
to become a key part of what Doncaster Rovers wish to achieve.
"He's a bright boy and he's got good feet. He's come on twice
now and both times it's been in Wales and we've lost. That's
disappointing for him I suppose but I think he's shown enough
to show that he will fit in to the way we play and the things
we do. He's been a good acquisition for us, in the long term
and the short term. His career has only just started at
Doncaster and he can only get better."