Richie Wellens takes confidence from Doncaster Rovers' impressive performance at Sheffield Wednesday

Rovers were in control for much of Saturday’s South Yorkshire derby at Hillsborough but could not make it count in front of goal and saw the game taken away from them with a quickfire double 15 minutes from time from Barry Bannan and Dennis Adeniran.

Having called on his players to show control and composure, Wellens was pleased with much of what Rovers produced on the day.

“The fact we’ve done it here today gives me massive confidence,” he said.

“I’m really proud of the players because it was a good performance.

“They just took the game away from us in a four minute spell. We made a mistake and we’ve been punished.

“Then we went back to controlling the game a bit.

“I thought we were the better team for the majority of the game.

“They just had a moment from a class player at this level that took the game away from us.

“We were controlled in possession, we had the majority of the ball and I thought in the first half we were excellent. We had the two best chances.

“I’m really proud of the players because our progression has been vast.”

Rovers won a penalty four minutes from time when Sam Hutchinson was adjudged to have handled an Ed Williams shot.

With six minutes of added time to come, Wellens felt Rovers would have asked questions of Wednesday’s resolve had the penalty been scored, but substitute Omar Bogle hit the post and Ben Close lashed the rebound wide.

“If we scored the penalty there was ten minutes left including injury time,” Wellens said.

“But we can’t even score the penalty.

“When it comes so quick off the post it’s difficult for Ben and he’s got bodies in front of him.

“A penalty is a free shot from 12 yards so we’re disappointed with that.

“Omar won’t be on penalties again.

“We let one off the hook there with ten minutes to go. Especially with where they’ve gone. They’re used to losing. If you pull one back there’s an opportunity to get a point out of it.

“We didn’t deserve to get beat today but they’ve got quality in the final third to make you pay."

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