Doncaster Rovers: Dickov salutes Rovers’ perfect display as Saunders rues a ‘disastrous’ night

After a poor home loss to Walsall on Saturday, Rovers got back in supporters’ good books with an accomplished 5-0 success against the Red Devils, piling on the pain for former Rovers chief Dean Saunders, who labelled his side’s showing as ‘disastrous.’

Goals in the five-goal blast from Rovers arrived from Andy Butler, Richie Wellens, Nathan Tyson, Harry Forrester and Curtis Main as Dickov’s side moved up two places to 11th in League One and extended their fine unbeaten away sequence to 11 games.

Dickov, who took over at Doncaster in June 2013, said: “That’s probably the most perfect team performance I’ve had since I’ve been here.

“I thought everybody tonight was outstanding start to finish.

“We had to get a response tonight after Saturday’s defeat.

“We’ve set standards since December time and we fell below them at the weekend, but they’ve got right back up there again.”

Dickov’s sentiments contrasted starkly with those of ex-Rovers chief, who was left to rue on a bitter night.

The Welshman, manager of Rovers from September 2011 to January 2013, added: “It was an awful, disastrous night for us. We were really just hanging on after about five minutes, and I just felt like we were hanging on in the game.

“They were better than us in all departments. They were moving the ball better than us and keeping the ball better than us and we had too many players just giving the ball away.

“They had about eight or nine players who were playing in the Championship last year and it showed. Good players don’t give the ball away.

“The lads have just got to go home and watch the DVD and they’ve got to look at their own performances because I have got to talk to you, the owners of the club and the supporters about what happened.”