Doncaster Rovers: 'It's deja vu!' - Ferguson bemoans familiar story in Bradford City defeat

Goals from Charlie Wyke and Nathaniel Knight-Percival were easily preventable from Rovers while at the other end of the pitch they failed to make good pressure count.

And Ferguson says his side are 'beating themselves' at the moment.

"I have to keep working with them and working with them," Ferguson said.

"You can change personnel but the basics of the game don't change.

"Both boxes are where you win and lose it and we've lost it.

"It's as simple as that.

"We're beating ourselves. We're not giving ourselves a chance at the minute.

"Even when it went to 1-0 they had a strong period in the game. They're always going to get a strong period. It was probably their strongest period,

"You see it through. I'm thinking get to half time and there's one goal in it.

"We concede on 40 minutes. Not doing the basics. A free header from a set piece."

Particularly frustrating for the Rovers boss was the fact he had hammered home to his players throughout the week of the threats which Bradford posed.

Ferguson had laid out a three point plan for shutting down the Bantams and a failure to adhere to those guidelines ultimately led to Rovers' downfall.

"It's deja vu - we're not doing the basics right in both boxes," he said.

"We started the game fine, we started the game well and very positive.

"Stop crosses, deal with set pieces, deal with Wyke. We couldn't do it.

"And it cost us the game.

"Defensively we had to deal with that.

"At the other end we needed more quality.

"Alfie May had a chance early in the second half., we should score and then we've got a game on.

"I said to them at half time, we needed to get the next goal. 2-0 is always a precarious lead.

"We kept going. But I;'m not going to praise them for keep going because it's a gimmie.

"We're just not doing the basics.

"Bradford's game plan would be getting balls into the box because that's how they play. From set pieces they're very, very strong.

"And not dealing with that has cost us the game."

Ferguson revealed he left James Coppinger on the bench due to the toll of the recent busy period on the veteran midfielder.

And he said Matty Blair missed out entirely due to a minor injury.