Doncaster Rovers 0 Bournemouth 1: Dickov regrets Rovers’ ‘lack of intensity’ as Bournemouth prevail

Nine days ago – after a win over Blackburn and a draw at Wigan – Rovers led Charlton 3-1 when the game at The Valley was called off because of bad weather.

Since then, Paul Dickov’s men have been resoundingly beaten in the Capital One Cup by Leeds and were outplayed by Bournemouth in this game.

“The one thing I will do is take getting beat if the team of players try to do what we want them to do,” said the Scot.

“Whether this was a case of too many of them having an off day or too many getting complacent, that’s a question I have to answer.

“If anyone has seen us play, even when we have lost we have created stuff and passed the ball. On Saturday we were devoid of intensity.”

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe was glad to show his side’s fans that he is not going mad after his men cured their travel sickness at Doncaster.

The Cherries’ two away games back in the Championship prior to this one had ended in chastening defeats, with 11 goals shipped across outings at Watford and Huddersfield.

Howe took positives from those defeats, though, raising eyebrows when he said he was pleased with aspects of what his men had done.

His faith bore fruit at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium as Brett Pitman’s first goal of the season earned them victory.

“The difficulty is, when you’re beaten heavily like we were, and then say you’re pleased with elements of the performance, people think you’re lying,” Howe said.

“(Against Doncaster) there were elements of those performances in there, but we defended better than we have done.

“After the last two games questions were going to be asked and we responded very well. We needed to, for the fans and the players.”

That response started with a policy of all-out attack, with all the early chances falling to Howe’s men. Pitman took one of them when he got his head to Charlie Daniels’s free-kick on the half-hour. Replays suggested the striker may have been offside.

Some of Bournemouth’s tactics seemed to anger Doncaster boss Dickov, who spent large parts of the first half debating a number of issues with both the fourth official and Howe.

Doncaster Rovers: Turnbull, Wabara (Forrester 78), Jones, Khumalo, Husband,

Coppinger, Keegan, Wellens, Cotterill (Paynter 64), Brown, Robinson (Duffy 68). Unused substitutes: Quinn, Furman, McCullough, Maxted.

Bournemouth: Allsop, Francis, Cook, Ward, Daniels, Fraser (Coulibaly 71), MacDonald, Arter, Pugh (Elphick 90), Pitman, Grabban (Thomas 89). Unused substitutes: Surman, Harte, McDermott, Flahavan.

Referee: S Hooper (Wiltshire).