09 February 2021

Darren Moore says Doncaster dropped below their high standards in Fleetwood loss

09 February 2021

Doncaster boss Darren Moore said his players dropped below their high standards as they fell to a shock 3-1 defeat at Fleetwood

Moore’s promotion-chasing side squandered the chance to close the gap on League One leaders Lincoln as they slipped from second to fifth in the standings.

Jason Lokilo’s first-ever professional goal, which came in the eighth minute, had seemingly put the visitors on course for a sixth league away win in a row.

But second-half goals from on-loan Rotherham striker Kyle Vassell, Paddy Madden and full-back Danny Andrew completed a remarkable turnaround.

Moore said: “We’ve not reached the levels we’ve reached in recent weeks. We dipped below them.

“Credit to Fleetwood because they made it really difficult for us.

“We had a great start with an early goal, but as the game wore on we just didn’t make the right decisions.

“We didn’t move the ball quick enough and didn’t move the ball with enough purpose.

“As you’ve seen tonight with their first and second goals, we can’t afford to give those types of goals away.

“We’ve been really good in recent weeks, I’ve got to give the players credit because they’ve worked really hard as a group.

“But tonight they’ve dropped below the standards that they have set. It’s clear for all to see that you can’t expect to give goals away like that and perform like that – and then expect to get away with a result.

“It’s a shame because we started really well, got the goal and then for some reason stopped doing all the good things we’d done in recent weeks.

“It’s one we’ve got to learn from – and we’ve got to do it quickly because we’ve got another big game (against Sunderland) on Saturday.”

Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson was understandably delighted with his first win at his new club.

Prior to his arrival Town had not won in 10 matches, with their last home league win having been a 5-1 demolition of Plymouth on Saturday, November 21.

It was also the club’s first league win in almost two months – their last having been a 1-0 victory over Swindon on December 12.

Grayson beamed: “It was a really good team performance and some excellent individual performances.

“But the big pleasing thing for me was that we didn’t let our heads drop when we went 1-0 down. That was a big thing for me, it’s a really good trait to have.

“We caused them a lot of problems after conceding and we were very solid defensively.

“You do question players when they’ve been on a bad run, ‘have they got the right attitude to respond?’ And they did.

“We didn’t let it (the early goal) affect us. We got on the ball and tried to pass it around like I wanted us to do.

“We looked a threat, stuck to the game-plan of pressing them in certain areas and we’ve ended up beating a very good team tonight.”

Grayson saved extra praise for captain Madden who became the club’s highest league goalscorer with his sixth of the campaign.

Madden’s cool finish saw him overtake David Ball with 42 league goals for the club.

“It’s great for him and, in terms of the game, it was a really important goal for us,” reflected Grayson.

“Hopefully there’s many more goals for him at this football club.”

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