'Massive wake-up call' - Doncaster Rovers' obvious area for improvement laid bare
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess what the particular area of focus at Cantley Park will be over these next few days.
After drawing a blank against Bromley in their most recent outing, Doncaster Rovers' players drew plenty of ire from their livid manager Grant McCann. They dominated possession and carved out way more chances than their opponents but still ended up losing 1-0.
Perhaps more painful than the result was the manner of the performance and a failure to properly test the visitors' goalkeeper. Of their 22 attempts at goal, only eight were on target. Centre-forward duo Joe Ironside and Billy Sharp are just not doing it at the moment and their struggles continued here. Ironside got the nod to start after finally breaking his duck with a penalty at Swindon last weekend. But he was replaced by Sharp just after the hour. Sadly, neither man got going against the Ravens. Between them they had just 26 touches and one shot (off target) with Sharp earning a booking to boot.
When quizzed by the Free Press on whether finishing would be the main topic of discussion at Cantley Park between now and Saturday's trip to Bradford, McCann concurred.
"Absolutely," he said. "I just said to the players that they keep ask us as staff for shooting sessions in training, but what about shooting out there? (on the pitch).
"What about scoring goals out there in front of your fans? That's the place you want to score. Not in front of nobody at Cantley. So we have to be better. They know that, and this (result) is a massive wake-up call."
Whilst Sharp and Ironside have clearly not clicked into gear yet, with just four goals in a combined 26 league outings, their manager refuses to pin the blame squarely on the front pair.
"I'm not aiming the criticism at any one player," he added. "We all need to be better, as a team, it's as simple as that. We're not good enough at the top end of the pitch at the minute, hence why we lost to Bromley and nearly drew at Swindon but for a couple of set-plays."