Doncaster Rovers boss Danny Schofield frustrated after derby misery against Harrogate Town

Late goals from Luke Armstrong and substitute Alex Pattison saw Town collect a well-deserved Sky Bet League Two triumph over lacklustre Doncaster, who sit nine points off the top seven with 12 games remaining.

It isn’t the end of the road for Rovers’ hopes of making an isntant return to League One, but the inconsistency which has dogged their 2022-23 campaign throughout, was evident again on Tuesday night as they struggled for cohesion and attacking threat throughout.

“I’m bitterly disappointed,” fumed Schofield. “In the performance levels there was a lack of intensity, a lack of quality and a lack of energy from the players and I’ve not seen that in the performances, even the ones where we’ve not got a positive result.

“It was a poor performance overall. We want to do the best we can in every game and that didn’t materialise.”

Schofield felt the visitors showed the fight they will need in order to avoid dropping out of League Two and deserved to take all three points home with them.

“Harrogate came here, fighting for their lives and needing the points to stay in the league,” added Schofield. “They caused us a lot of problems at times, especially when we had the ball against their structure. We weren’t able to find the right quality to be able to create enough chances.

“The game was in the balance at 0-0. We tried to make some changes but they didn’t have a positive impact.

“I’m disappointed to concede from a set-play and then we got caught chasing the game, which I didn’t think we needed to do because there was time left in the game for us for us to settle and try to get the equaliser.”