Gary McSheffrey says Doncaster Rovers showed too much patience in 1-0 defeat to Gillingham

The Gills went in front inside the first minute, Charlie Kelman getting on the end of a long throw-in as Doncaster's players stood and watched.

From there they could sit back and challenge the home team to do something about it, and it was something they did in the second half in particular. The answer was not very much.

Rovers had plenty of the ball in those circumstances, but lacked the belief to take risks with it.

"I think we had the majority of the ball, we played some nice stuff second half but we just didn't have that cutting edge and that final bit," said McSheffrey. "We huffed a bit, had a couple of good efforts and the goalie (Pontus Dahlberg) made a couple of good saves.

"We just lacked that desire to get in behind them and keep putting the ball in the box. There was a little bit too much patience on the pitch rather than knocking about, putting them under pressure and forcing an error.

"You just need to put it in the mixer a little bit more. When we get to 40, 35 yards out on the angle it's a good crossing position and we chose to turn back a bit too much, keep possession, recycle it and switch play again. They're fine with that, they'll just shuffle over keeping their two banks and leave the big man up top, not a problem. We needed to ask the more questions and try and force some errors.

"Because we were over-playing at times, then when you do put it in, some people are not expecting it to come in but you need to be able to smell where you can be a danger and a threat to the opposition. That's where we're lacking.

"Potentially it's just a bit of belief. We've got good players in the middle of the park who want to keep the ball. We put a few good balls in during the first half but we didn't get on the end of them, we over-hit a few in the first half but you've got to keep knocking on the door.

"If you turn down opportunities to put it in the box you're not going to hurt teams enough."

Unsurprisingly for a team in the League One relegation zone who had lost 4-0 to bottom-four rivals Cheltenham Town the previous week, Doncaster played with a nervousness which frustrated supporters who booed them off at full-time

"It was an important game," said McSheffrey. "We knew what was on it.

"You don't see that nervousness in the week. It's all about how they can handle the pressure on matchday. That's the difference, really.

"They did look nervous first half there wasn't enough quality, but I thought in the second half we got on the ball a lot better, played through them and kept the ball moving from side to side but just lacked that end product in the final third."

And worst of all, Rovers played into the Gills' hands by conceding a terrible goal.

"It's not great starting by giving a throw-in away after 10 seconds when it's their main weapon and we don't defend it, we get caught under it, you've got to get first contact on it," reflected the manager. "You can't let it bounce in your six-yard box and they've got their noses in front in the first minute.

"That's their gameplan, really.

"We had a lot of the ball, they let you play out from the back a bit and just want to defend their box.

"Their game management is quite old-school and they are quite shrewd about how they do things to slow the game down. It was awkward really."