Doncaster Rovers 1 Brighton 3: Depleted Doncaster suffer to leave Dickov to rue Albion’s strikes

The Seagulls had not scored for four successive away games but put that right in South Yorkshire as super strikes from Jake Forster-Caskey and David Lopez, and a close-range effort from Leroy Lita, gave them three points.

Forster-Caskey fired in a 35-yard strike with his left foot early in the first half, and Lopez put the seal on victory with a fine late free-kick.

Doncaster had briefly gone level when Chris Brown flicked home a free kick from Mark Duffy in the 74th minute, but they were left licking their wounds.

Dickov had been unlucky when striker Theo Robinson was injured before the game, and captain Rob Jones then had to be replaced in the starting line-up after suffering a blow in the warm-up. Former Manchester United apprentice Luke McCullough came in for his debut.

Dickov said: “We looked a bit nervy and tentative in the first half – whether that was because we’ve just had a couple of defeats, or because of the circumstances and changes we’ve had to make before the game, I don’t know.

“But we had a few words at half-time and we were much better after the interval.

“After we had equalised it looked like we might go on and win the game but we conceded a really scrappy second goal after the ball had bounced about in the area following a corner.

“The other two we couldn’t do much about because they were a couple of strikes out of this world.

“But we showed what we could do in the second half, that we are not a bad team and that we can compete.

“There were positives to come out of the game and we will just carry on and aim to finish as high as we can.”

Doncaster have lost three in a row and sit just a point outside the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone.

“We always knew there’s a possibility of having a run like this and losing one or two in a row,” Dickov said, “but you can just as easily turn things round by going on a winning run in this division.”

Brighton assistant manager Nathan Jones admitted: “The final score probably flattered us a little bit because Doncaster put us under a lot of pressure in the second half and we scored a couple of unbelievable goals.”

Doncaster: Turnbull, Wabara, Khumalo, McCullough, Yun, Wellens, Keegan, Coppinger (Paynter 62), Duffy, Cotterill, Brown. Unused substitutes: Quinn, Furman, Maxted, Wakefield, De Val Fernandez,

Brighton: Kuszczak, Saltor (Calderon 53), Greer, Upson, Ward, Crofts, Andrews, Forster-Caskey (Lita 82), Buckley (Lopez 65), Barnes, Conway. Unused substitutes: El-Abd, Ankergren, March, Ince.

Referee: F Graham (Essex).

Man of the match: Chris Brown.