Gary McSheffrey: I almost gave up hope before Doncaster’s late winner

Posted Wednesday, August 17, 2022 by PA

Gary McSheffrey admitted he had almost given up hope that Doncaster would grab the winner against Stockport before another late show saw them take all three points from a 2-1 League Two win.

Rovers have netted vital goals in added time in their last three League Two matches to take seven points from those games, with Kieran Agard the latest to strike.

It had appeared that it would not be Rovers’ night, despite playing against 10 men after Macauley Southam-Hales was sent off for an off-the-ball incident with Tommy Rowe. George Miller put Rovers in front but Ryan Rydel equalised for Stockport, who proved a tough nut to crack in the face of tremendous pressure.

But Agard struck two minutes into added time to snatch the win for Doncaster.

“I felt we were peppering them and their goalkeeper was having a worldie,” McSheffrey said.

“When Luke Molyneux hits his chance over on the 88th minute, I turned to (assistant) Steve Eyre and said ‘this might not be our night. They might nick a point’.

“It was a great game of football and the fans must have been pleased with it.

“And to get the winner at the end. Kieran with the goal, Tommo (Lee Tomlin) with the through ball.

“For Kieran to bounce back with the winner, it’s credit to him.

“And we take the win, however it comes. But I think it was a top performance tonight.

“We got some goalscorers on the pitch and kept plugging away. The switches of play were killing them.”

Stockport manager Dave Challoner was furious with referee Declan Bourne over the decision to dismiss Southam-Hales.

The Welshman tussled with Rowe and was adjudged to have lashed out when Bourne consulted one of his assistants.

And Challnor believed the red card was the decisive incident in the game.

He said: “We’re always told there are three teams on the pitch and one has let us down tonight.

“There wasn’t anything in the red-card incident and, if the officials are honest, it will be overturned because what they told us they are going to put in the report didn’t happen.

“The linesman was three yards away, so it must have been a tough angle for him. We were told he had elbowed their player but it’s a horrific decision that took away any opportunity for us to win a game of football.

“He will referee another game on Saturday and there will be no consequence for him. It took away the game plan we had after 20 minutes and we were delighted to get in 1-0 down.

“We then reorganised and regrouped at half-time and got a goal back but couldn’t quite see the game out.”