Doncaster Rovers: Darren Moore apologises for horror show as Rovers exit FA Cup at Gillingham

Two goals in the opening quarter hour put the visitors on the back foot and they never recovered as Gillingham sealed a comfortable passage in to the third-round.

“Make no bones about that, it was a disappointment,” bemoaned Moore.

“We thank the travelling fans that have made the long journey down here. We send our apologies to them because that’s certainly not what we pride ourselves on in terms of here at the football club.

“When you come down to places like this you’ve got to be ready.

“I’ve been here a number of years as a player myself and I’ve been here as a coach and it’s a certain type of ground that you have to be mentally strong down here and physically right to deal with their threat and I thought today we were lacking in those areas.”

When asked where improvements were needed, Moore’s response was forthright. “All over,” he said.

“We lose games as a team, we win games as a team so it’s all over the pitch.

“We just didn’t quite do our jobs today and I know, the players know, we’re a tight knit group who pride ourselves on that so it’s not about throwing our toys out of the pram, so to speak, because it has been the first “below” performance of the season.

“What we’ve clearly identified is that a performance like that cannot happen for the remainder of the season.”