FERGUSON NOT A HAPPY MAN
DONCASTER boss Darren Ferguson bemoaned his side’s concentration levels after a late Crewe goal brought Rovers’ winning run to a halt.
Ryan Lowe’s header gave the Railwaymen the lead and though Tommy Rowe’s penalty looked to have shared the spoils, James Jones hit the winner with three minutes left.
And Ferguson, whose side had won their last three league games, drew parallels with their opening-day defeat against Accrington.
“It’s not something that obviously we plan to do but we have lost too many late goals," he said.
“Why? I put it down to concentration. When we go to 1-1, we switch off, we’ve stopped concentrating.
“For whatever reason, we get to 1-1 and lose the game. At Accrington, we get to 2-2 and lose the game. It’s happening too many times.
“We have been on a good run, we’ll have to go on another one now. It’s about winning games. We weren’t ruthless enough, it’s as simple as that.
“I’m not being critical of the overall performance, which was a good one.”
Crewe took the lead when Chris Dagnall’s dangerous right-wing cross on 14 minutes was met by Lowe for his fourth strike this season.
Jon Guthrie then breathed a sigh of relief when he sliced an attempted clearance of James Coppinger’s cross onto the crossbar.
Rowe should have levelled after meeting Frazer Richardson’s 25th-minute cross, but the midfielder cut the ball back across goal rather than pulling the trigger.
Ben Garratt preserved Crewe’s lead with a superb save on the hour after clawing Matty Blair’s header off the line.
Crewe youngster George Cooper produced a sublime 63rd-minute curling cross for Dagnall, whose header was denied by Marko Marosi’s lightning quick reaction. And the visitors levelled when Lee Probert pointed to the spot for alleged shirtpulling by Harry Davis and Rowe coolly slotted home the penalty with eight minutes remaining.
But Crewe hit back when Zoumana Bakayogo’s 87thminute cross was knocked down by Oliver Turton to tee up Jones in the box, and he fired emphatically past Marosi.
“For both goals, we’ve encouraged that type of skill and that’s what we’re looking for the players to do in the last third,” said Crewe manager Steve Davis.
“That’s where they can take chances and show that composure and show that ability.
“I’m really pleased for Jones for the second one. We’ve been on about him getting in the box and getting forward and getting more goals and he almost got a second as well.
“You want the forwards to look for each other and combine. I’m sure Lowey will set Daggers up a few
times too.”