Boro were thumped 4-0 by their League One visitors, who made 11 changes for the game.
And while Edwards praised Rovers for their display, he said Boro’s players were made clearly aware of his disappointment at certain elements of the display after what was a very honest post-match debrief in the home dressing room.
And what disappointed Edwards most was the way some Boro heads dropped late on.
“I’ve spoken to the lads, they know exactly how I feel,” said Boro’s disappointed head coach.
“The first thing I want to start with is acknowledging our supporters, how they were with us tonight. We didn’t hold our end of the bargain up.”
RECOMMENDED READING:
Boro had a shocking start, with Doncaster racing into a two goal lead by the midway stage of the first half. The hosts steadied the ship and improved slightly at the end of the first half and start of the second, but were poor in the final third.
Delano Burgzorg hit the post and went close a couple of times before Morgan Whittaker missed a glorious chance to halve the deficit.
Doncaster then wrapped up the victory with a third goal six minutes from time and a fourth deep in stoppage time.
Edwards said: “I think we had a 15 minute period in the first half when we lost our way with the ball and gave it to them too much. Then our pressing was non-existent. All of a sudden they found themselves two goals to the good.
“We had to make some adjustments obviously, half an hour, 35 minutes in, then it looked like we were going to get back into it and found a way through quite a lot of times but our final third stuff wasn’t good enough.
“I think if we’d have been there for another half an hour tonight we wouldn’t have scored a goal.
“We had so many opportunities to pull the trigger and shoot and didn’t. We were building a head of steam in the second half at 2-0, obviously had a big opportunity with the one v one and the keeper made a good save. The third goal I have to look at it back, it looked soft. By then what was disappointing it looked like some heads dropped and that can’t happen.”
Edwards added: “We learnt a lot. I think what we need to show is the one side to us, the side that we saw on Saturday.
“We saw a different side to us tonight. Learnt a lot tonight and that’s not acceptable.
“They [the players] know how we feel. They, Doncaster, have come here and played extremely well but made loads of changes, a whole team of changes and deservedly won the game. That’s not acceptable.”
Edwards made five changes to his side and it was put to the head coach that the performance and defeat highlighted the need for more depth and new signings.
“We know we need more,” he said.
“The guys all know that. Tonight doesn’t change that. It maybe highlights one or two bits but it doesn’t change that.”
Despite the defeat, Edwards led his players on a lap around the pitch at full-time in a show of appreciation to the fans, who the head coach praised for their support.
“I’d really just want to say thank you to every one who came out, and thanks to them for sticking with us,” he said.
“We’ll work extremely hard now to turn things around quickly. They’re important to me and win, lose or draw, I’ll always go around and show my appreciation.
“Tonight we wanted to build more momentum and that was my message to the boys before the game, so that’s a backwards step tonight.
“We have to hold our hands up, we have to take our medicine, and we have to work hard to be better.
“I know there will be a big following coming down to Millwall with us on Saturday, and we’ve just spoken to the boys about that in there.
“We’ve got to make sure we’re making them proud. Certainly tonight we didn’t. That was the opposite.”
