Darren Moore on Doncaster Rovers missing out on top spot in League One

Rovers missed out on the opportunity to lead the division at Christmas as they were beaten 1-0 by Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night.

Moore acknowledged that some fans will be disappointed at the missed opportunity but insists the achievement would have meant little with so much of the season left to play.

“We’re disappointed because here at Doncaster Rovers we don’t want to lose games,” he said.

“For the supporters that are disappointed, I can understand it.

“From the outside, they were looking at us going top of the league.

“But at the same time, look at the opportunity we had got for ourselves where we could have gone top of the league.

“It shows that we’ve been doing things right.

“Yes, be disappointed but at the same time be happy that we were in a position where we could have gone top at Christmas.

“But I’m going to say if we had gone top at Christmas, there is still a lot of football to be played with us being so early in the season and we’re still catching up with teams because we’ve played less games.

“While we are disappointed, we move on ready for Boxing Day.”

Despite the defeat, Moore was largely pleased with the performance from his side in defeat to Shrewsbury.

Rovers dominated the first half but failed to convert their excellent play into goals and were caught out when Aaron Pierre headed home from a free kick to grab the only goal of the game for the Shrews.

Moore said: "From my perspective and I said this to the boys, I'm really happy with the performance.

"I always look for a performance from the players and I don't tend to look too much at the result.

"The boys gave a good account of themselves and I felt we dominated the game from start to finish.

"We got done by a set play so you're always disappointed by that but it is what it is and we move on.

"I thought in the first half we pulled them apart in terms of the system they had and we exposed it to great effect.”

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