Andy Butler wants more from Doncaster after draw with Northampton

Posted Sunday, March 14, 2021 by PA

Andy Butler says his Doncaster side failed to reach their usual standards as they battled out a goalless draw with Northampton.

Rovers enjoyed large swathes of possession but struggled to create chances against a stubborn and resolute Cobblers.

And after failing to win for the second successive game, Butler expected much better from his side.

“It was disappointing,” he said. “I don’t think we played with any sort of urgency or tempo.

“Northampton came here and set their stall out for a 0-0 and get something on the break or a set-piece. We had to be switched on for them, which we were and that’s a positive.

“We’re so much better than that though. We allowed them to get back into shape and dictate the tempo. That was disappointing.

“We’re usually a free-flowing football side. Northampton came with a game-plan to stifle and they did that.

“We spoke about it before the game that playing with some sort of tempo would move them about but we allowed them to get into a shape too much.

“There was never really any threat. We had some urgency at the end but that was it really.

“The players have got standards they know about and they didn’t reach them. I’m not going to sit here and say it was a vintage Doncaster Rovers performance because it wasn’t.

“We can improve and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Interim Northampton boss Jon Brady praised his side’s work ethic as they took points off another promotion-chasing side, leaving them just above the relegation zone.

The Cobbers beat Portsmouth earlier this month and followed that up with a battling point at Doncaster.

“It was a good performance all round,” Brady said. The players worked really hard and we were very organised.

“It was really pleasing to restrict a team who started the day fifth in the table to one real effort on our goal from a corner when Jon Mitchell made a save, although it was a good save.

“We also had a good couple of chances to win it with the shot from Shaun McWilliams that went just past the post and Ryan Watson’s deflected shot that would have gone in.

“We need to be a bit braver on the ball but we’ve finally got a breather with no game in midweek so we can work on that, because the schedule has been relentless.

“But the effort and application from all 11 players and the subs was first class and the real positive is we have taken four points from play-off contenders in the last three games and, if we had got the penalty we should have had at Charlton, that would have been five points.”