Doncaster Rovers must learn their lesson - Ferguson

That was Darren Ferguson’s view after watching his side create a hatful of chances, get back into the game late on, but ultimately go down 2-1 at the Alexandra Stadium.

“What I said to the players is ‘we can’t lose a game like that’. We have done, and why we have is we weren’t ruthless enough,” said a frustrated Ferguson afterwards.

“We have to learn. And we have to get back on a run.

“We’ve got [Mathieu] Baudry back training this week, [Gary] McSheffrey will be a couple of weeks, Craig Alcock won’t be far off, Tyler Garratt too, so we’re getting bodies back. They’ll be like four new signings.

“The most important thing now is to make sure we don’t lose the next game [at Morecambe].”

The defeat brought to a halt Rovers’ four-game winning sequence.

Tommy Rowe’s 82nd minute penalty cancelled out Ryan Lowe’s first half header, and was just reward for the way Rovers stuck to the task and continued to create chances - but Crewe won it with a late strike from James Jones.

“It is a disappointing result. We have been on a good run and will have to go on another one now,” said Ferguson.

“It is about winning games and we weren’t ruthless enough, simple as that.

“I am not being critical as the performance overall was a good one. But it is about who scores most goals on a Saturday and they [Crewe] have.

“For whatever reason, we got to 1-1 and lost the game. At Accrington, we got to 2-2 and lose the game. It is happening too many times. But when you let people put balls into the box, that is where the danger is.

“We have lost too many late goals and I put that down to concentration.”