it's goodto talk

The Scot said his players were “leaning too much on me at the minute” in the aftermath of Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic.

Ahead of tonight’s game against Portsmouth at the Keepmoat Stadium, he explained in further detail about what he meant to the local media.

And getting his players talking and communicating more with each other during the game is at the heart of it.

“They’ve got to be aware that they have responsibilities while the game’s going on as well,” said Ferguson.

“As a manager you’re responsible for a lot, which is absolutely correct.

“But when certain things are happening in games they need to have responsibility for that.

“And it’s not a case of ‘us and them’. It’s never going to be like that here.

“They are aware of it as well and it is something we’ve spoken about. I fell if we can get a bit more of that it will help us.”

He added: “They do take on responsibility but it’s about finding a way of sorting problems out and not maybe waiting for the reaction of the manager at half time and not accepting certain things.

“I’m not saying they are doing that, I just think it’s something we can improve and the players are aware of that.

“It’s a really rare thing in modern football having players like when I played. I was horrible to play with, I’ve got to be honest, but I did it for the right reasons.

“A good example would be Roy Keane. He was always on at his players, but nothing personal.

“It can just be a simple message like ‘that’s not good enough’, ‘you’re better than that’, just to make sure the standards remain the same - that’s all I’m asking of them.

“We have got some good talkers but I think at times everyone has to do it. That’s all I’m saying.

“I think this is common in football now though, you’ve got to appreciate that. But if we can get a little more out of them in that sense, I think it’ll help us.”