Darren Moore: Too early to suggest Doncaster are promotion contenders

Posted Sunday, December 13, 2020 by PA

Doncaster boss Darren Moore was reluctant to label his side promotion contenders despite their impressive 2-1 win over Gillingham.

Rovers dominated much of the game against their stubborn visitors, with goals from Reece James and Brad Halliday securing them victory.

The result took Moore’s side to within five points of the automatic promotion places, while still holding games in hand over the sides above them in the table.

But he refused to be drawn into talk of a promotion push, and said: “We’ll see – that’s the best way I can say it.

“For me to turn around and say ‘we’re contenders’ would be the wrong thing because we’re a third of the way through the season and there’s still a lot of football to be played.

“We’ll just continue to go. I always say to the boys to just look to the next game and get the right performance in the next game.

“I won’t detract away from that and we look towards Swindon on Tuesday and getting ready for that.”

James capped a fine first half for Rovers with a smart finish on the half hour.

Gillingham equalised through Kyle Dempsey after the break, only for Rovers to go back ahead two minutes later through Halliday.

Moore felt his side should have put the game to bed.

“I thought it was a good accomplished performance by ourselves against difficult opposition,” he said.

“It was a game where we had large spells of the play and we were in control.

“If there is one small criticism I just thought maybe we could have got a few more goals from the chances we fashioned.

“Overall, it was a good performance. It was disappointing when we conceded the equaliser but the response from the boys was excellent.”

Gillingham boss Steve Evans was frustrated with his side’s first-half performance but felt they improved to have Doncaster on the back foot in the second half.

He said: “We never showed up for the first half. We were devoid of everything that we are good at and we didn’t work hard enough.

“It was a really poor performance and I was glad to go in at half-time only 1-0 down.

“But we were a lot better in the second half and, at the end, without making a clear-cut chance, we were territorially dominant and the ball was in their half.

“They were also running it into the corners, which shows you how much better we were in the second half.

“But, as a manager, you reflect on the full 90 minutes, not just the second 45 – and two or three of our players who probably think they have a guaranteed shirt might find out they haven’t in our next game on Tuesday.”