Schofield happy with ‘outstanding’ display vs Carlisle

Danny Schofield hailed the best overall performance in his time as head coach of Doncaster as they triumphed 2-1 over in-form Carlisle.

Goals from James Maxwell – his first for the club – and Kyle Hurst saw Rovers on their way to a deserved triumph, with Kristian Dennis grabbing a late consolation for Carlisle.

Schofield has been searching for consistency in performances since arriving at Rovers and saw his side deliver back-to-back wins for the first time in his tenure.

He said: “It was an outstanding performance from the lads, particularly the first 35 minutes or so of the game when I thought we were excellent and really dominant in the way we want to play our football.

“It was up there with the best performances of my time here. The lads have definitely implemented a way which we’re trying to do. It’s them on the pitch, taking control of it and they own it.

“Back-to-back wins is not easy to come by in professional football and it’s massive that they’ve done it.

“If you can spread the goals around, the more the merrier. I was really pleased for James Maxwell, who has taken a lot of the messages we’ve been giving on board to help him improve. He attacked really well in the first half and deserved his goal.

“It’s important we have attacking players from wide areas. We play with wing-backs and we want them to attack and press as much as possible. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, but that’s football. You sometimes get pinned deeper.”

Carlisle boss Paul Simpson refused to blame the impact of the busy festive schedule for his side not being ‘at it’ against Doncaster.

The Cumbrians had picked up two wins over the previous week but were off-colour on their visit to the Eco-Power Stadium.

“We showed good character chasing the game at the end when we had a few little skirmishes around their goal but, overall, we were not at it all afternoon,” Simpson said. “We were poor from the start and I was also disappointed with both of their goals.

“I don’t think the keeper should have been beaten for the first one. It should have been saved.

“All over the pitch, we couldn’t control or pass the ball. We also lost the duels, did not win the first contacts or second balls and kept giving the ball to them.

“There was maybe a bit of tiredness after the Christmas schedule, but they were in the same position and had more life than us. We’d won our last two and it was an opportunity to get a third win on board, but it was an opportunity lost.”