Richie Wellens 'loses will to live' as Doncaster Rovers rue another refereeing performance

Rovers' fate was sealed in a spell of just over 10 minutes which saw Doncaster concede a goal, have a man sent off, then concede again.

Wellens was adamant the first goal was offside and his protests earned him a fourth card of the season - his third yellow - and angry that Joseph Olowu was sent off for what looked like a clear booking. Rovers plan to appeal

"It was another decision where it should have been offside," said Wellens. "The attacking and defensive players are in the same line, there's no crossed movement so it's quite an easy decision to make.

"It's a difficult job but every single week the referee has a big impact on our scorelines and then a couple of minutes later to top it off he sent Joe off for a professional foul.

"I get it but it's in no way dangerous - a standard yellow card. He's probably been influenced by their bench and the opposition players surrounding him. When you get decisions like that you lose the will to live as a football manager.

"It killed the game more than anything.

"Jon Taylor pushed it past a Lincoln guy when we played them, the Lincoln player does it knee-high. We asked for a red card but we probably knew it was a yellow. I just really hope he rescinds it.

"I tried to have a conversation with (fourth official) Trevor Kettle on the side and he was justy, 'No, the referee's right.'

"Then we allowed an easy cross into our box (for a second goal before half-time)."

The irony was that until Eoin Doyle put the hosts in front, Doncaster had been much the better side, Jon Taylor guilty of a bad miss.

"For 36 minutes we're by far the better team both in possession and out of possession," said Wellens, justifiably.

"We should have been two or 3-0 up and Jon Taylor said sorry to the players afterwards. That's an absolute guaranteed goal and there were a couple of other occasions where we should have scored as well.

"We won the ball back high a couple of times where if the last pass is good we can take the lead."

Wellens at least took something from the fact Rovers did not cave in when Branden Horton's own goal added to Elias Kachunga's strike in first-half stoppage tine.

"There's a hell of a lot of young players who will benefit from that experience," he said. "I'm really happy that when it went to 3-0 - and I'm trying to be ulttra-positive here - that at no stage did we cave in. We were never going to get back in the game but at no stage did it get embarrassing.

"We can take the first 36 minutes and build on that."