Doncaster Rovers left to regret not make possession and chances count against Hartlepool United

Dan Dodds’ late strike handed all three points to Hartlepool, who made 11 new signings during the January window with five arriving on deadline day.

Rovers enjoyed the majority of the play but found Hartlepool tough to break down throughout.

“It’s a tough one to take,” Schofield said. “There were lots of pleasing parts of our performance but ultimately we’ve ended up losing the game 1-0.

“We conceded on the counter-attack which is very disappointing because we controlled large parts of the game, created some good chances, lots of chances and some that were quite big. Everyone is very disappointed.

“It’s the final-third pieces. It’s down to moments of quality, final passes, better combination play, arriving in the box with more purpose and better quality in all moments of the attack.

“We’re finding ourselves regularly attacking on the edge of the box and it’s not easy to break down a team when they’re pinned in front of their goal. We didn’t manage to do it.

“I think we’re creating chances and that was quite evident, which the stats will back up. But ultimately we didn’t have the moments at the right time or the quality to have that finishing touch or final action.”

Doncaster Rovers: Mitchell, Anderson, Williams, Nelson (Molyneux 74), Brown, Close, Biggins, Maxwell (Rowe 67), Lavery (Agard 83), G Miller, Hurst (Lakin 67). Unused substitutes: Olowu, Jones, Seaman.

Hartlepool United: Stolarczyk, Dodds, Hartley, Pruti, Sterry (Kiernan 81), Featherstone, Finney (Dolan 76), Ferguson, Trusty (Umerah 62), Kemp, Jennings. Unused substitutes: Killip, Grey, Sylla, Foran.

Referee: Sam Allison (Somerset).