Dickov issues warning to his Doncaster flops

Rovers head into tomorrow’s home game with Brighton on the back of defeats at Reading and Boro, in which they leaked eight goals.

While he took heart from the performance at the Madejski Stadium, the televised Riverside display left him furious and he insists he will take action if his players turn in an unacceptable showing against the Seagulls.

Dickov, who turns 41 today, said: “I have been away most of the week scouting, looking at players and potential players to bring in because if I see again what I saw on Friday night, I will go out there and do it.

“These guys know what I am like from the short space of time I have been here. If they go out there and try to do the right thing for myself and the football club, then I’ll back them all the way and I’ll take getting beat, stupid as it seems, when it’s done in the right manner.

“That’s done by collectively working as hard as they can, with and without the ball, and trying to do the things I ask them to do. But I didn’t see any of that last Friday night.

“It’s important not to get away from the fact that it’s not all been wrong this season. But it’s even more important that I don’t accept a performance like Middlesbrough.

“To be fair, the players over the 12 league games have been different class and, more often than not, I’ve got what I wanted, even when we have lost games.

“But there were a lot of things I did not like about the (Middlesbrough) performance and the one place to put that right is on the training pitch.

“We’ve done that this week and I’m sure we’ll get a reaction on Saturday.”