Darren Ferguson hails Doncaster’s ‘endeavour’ as they snatch last-gasp point

Doncaster manager Darren Ferguson hailed Alfie Beestin’s last-gasp equaliser as a reward for his side’s “endeavour” in a 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe.

The Iron had led for almost all of a pulsating local derby on the back of Tom Hopper’s third-minute opener – scored following a glaring mistake by visiting goalkeeper Ian Lawlor.

But the home side were forced to settle for a point when Beestin headed in from a free-kick launched into the penalty area in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

“I’m delighted to get a point. You have to be when you’ve gone into the last minute of a game and you’re losing,” said Ferguson.

“But I’m not going to be doing cartwheels about it, because I think there’s a lot more in the tank.

“Lots of parts of the performance frustrated me tonight.

“I didn’t think we moved the ball quickly enough or looked after it well enough – and we rushed to get in positions when we could have taken an extra touch.

“We gave Scunthorpe the first goal through a bad mistake, but we dug in and we showed great resolve. Credit to my players for the great character they’ve shown and a great belief that they could get back in the game.

“I thought Alfie Beestin was our best player tonight. In the second half he was fantastic and won headers against people three or four inches bigger than him.

“Probably through our endeavour we deserved a point.”

Scunthorpe could have had the game sewn up long before Beestin’s header crept inside Rory Watson’s right-hand post in the fifth of eight added-on minutes.

Neal Bishop, who left the field on a stretcher in an incident which led to there being so much stoppage time, headed over the crossbar at the end of the first half and Josh Morris and Kevin van Veen were both denied by Lawlor as the stopper atoned for his earlier error.

Scunthorpe boss Graham Alexander said: “It feels extremly harsh, but it was a game that was in our control. We had numerous chances to score but we didn’t, and then in that last 15 minutes we dropped a bit deep.

“Performance-wise the players were on the front foot and aggressive. We deserved to win the game, but that’s football as they say.

“I know there were two big penalty shouts, but in accordance with all the other decisions the referee made, they probably weren’t (penalties).

“All we look for from officials is consistency. He let a lot things go and played on, yet then (for the equaliser) he gives one for absolutely nothing.

“I wouldn’t say it cost us two points. There were lots of things that did that – we had enough chances to score and got a bit too deep at the end.

“I didn’t think we deserved to concede, but when you don’t kill a team off and the score is 1-0, the game is open to a free-kick or a set-piece, which can cost you.”