Dons 'still learning about Championship', says Horne after Featherstone defeat

Horne felt that his side were still in contention at the end of an entertaining first half during which they failed to capitalise on several good chances and gifted Rovers a try.

But his fears that the Dons would pay for a 48 per cent completion rate were realised as the visitors scored 30 points without reply after the break.

“I thought the fact that we scored just before half-time to make it 16-4 might galvanise us to do something in the second half but we were nowhere where we needed to be on the day and the better team won,” he told the Free Press.

“They finished on just under a 90 per cent completion rate and we finished on 55-56, something like that.

“We looked clunky again when we got into good attacking positions and I can’t hide the fact that we didn’t play well and I’ve got no excuses. We just weren’t good enough today.

“We’ll have a good look at the match video as we start to prep for Sunday’s game at Barrow and some of the boys aren’t going to like what they are going to hear but it needs to be said. We’ve asked the players to look at themselves individually and if they are making errors in their game can they be ironed out? Hopefully they can but if not they’ll find themselves sat on the sidelines and other players will be coming in.

“We’ll also have a good look at what we are doing as coaches.

“One of the things we’ll be talking about again in training this week will be cutting out back-to-back errors because teams at this level - especially teams like Featherstone with all the quality players they’ve got in their side - are very clinical and they will punish you.”

There had been hopes in the Dons camp and among supporters in the build-up to the game that they could spring a surprise against a Featherstone side who were disappointing when losing at home to Bradford the previous weekend.

“They were a completely different side,” said Horne. “I think they made eight changes with four coming in on dual-reg from Hull KR and others coming from injury and suspension. They had a bit more organisation at half-back.

“They are likely to be up there challenging again, and as I’ve said before, we’ve come up from League One and it’s a tough league and we are still learning about things but hopefully we’ll come good.”

Horne made several changes to the side beaten by Wakefield with mixed results.

“We are still trying out one or two things to find our best side and we are moving players about as a result of injuries or lack of form,” he said

“We dropped Tom Halliday and we went with (full-back) Josh Guzdek on the wing. It was a bit of a gamble and obviously it didn’t pay off. But I was pleased with Craig (Hall) at full-back coming back from a quad injury. We didn’t know if he would play a full game but he got through fine.”