TONY Mowbray felt his side’s 3-1 home defeat to Doncaster Rovers was ‘self-inflicted’.

Rovers succumbed to a second successive defeat in League One as they shipped three second half goals to give the visitors the win.

Mowbray had hoped to take confidence from the midweek Carabao Cup win at Coventry City, but a below-par showing saw his side booed off in their first home game of the campaign.

“It was disappointing, frustrating.  It was self-inflicted,” Mowbray told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“These days come along and you have to put them behind you. 

“A lot of work goes in to pre-season, preparing the team and you hope that you get off to a decent start.

“The first half was too slow, too methodical and not enough opportunities created.  We had a three-on-one at one stage but didn’t pick the right pass.

“A goal down after 30 seconds of the second half, we made some more offensive changes, and we pushed on trying to get back in to the game when we should have been able to have built up a momentum.

“They broke away got a penalty kick, and the third goal was of our own making again.

“We have to stick together and find a way of winning matches.”

Each of the three goals Rovers conceded, scored by John Marquis, James Coppinger, and Alfie May, were avoidable from their point of view as each were gift-wrapped for the visitors.

Mowbray started with a three at the back system, as he had in the cup win.  But he said that wasn’t the reason for the defeat, saying an inability to defend properly was what cost them.

He added: “We played different formations in both games. I don’t think it’s the formation that is the issue.

“We have to understand what it takes to win games in this league.

“Teams will be set up to stop your talented players and you have to find a way to ask questions of them.

“First of all you have to be solid defensively and we weren’t.    You have to be able to defend one-on-ones, defenders have to be able to do their job and if they can’t, then you need to get numbers around them.

“It’s about finding a balance of attackers and defenders and at the moment, after the first two games, we haven’t got that quite right. 

“But I believe that we do have the ammunition that when we do get it right we can find that winning formula.

We have to regroup and get ready to go again, work hard and looking forward to the next game.”