Doncaster Rovers: 'We didn't deserve more than a draw' admits Darren Ferguson

Goals from James Coppinger and John Marquis put Rovers ahead at Fratton Park only for Anton Walkes and Brett Pitman to equalise for the hosts.

Portsmouth would finish with nine men after goalkeeper Stephen Henderson was forced off injured after boss Kenny Jackett had used all his substitutes.

And Christian Burgess was sent off in added time for a second bookable offence.

While Rovers started superbly Portsmouth wrestled control of the game after equalising and Ferguson felt a win for his side would have been somewhat unjust.

"It was a strange sort of game," he said.

"Any time you come to Portsmouth, it's always tough. There's no two ways about it.

"If you can manage to come away without getting beat, you're always thinking it's not a bad result.

"The way the game went, the first 20 minutes we were absolutely outstanding.

"It was fantastic the way we passed the ball and moved it. Copps got the early goal and we were totally dominant.

"But from a set piece one of my players loses his man and that changed the game.

"After that we couldn't get a foothold in the game, I've got to be honest.

"They were dominant, we couldn't get out, they put cross after cross into the box.

"To be fair we were resilient and we defended better and John gets us back in the lead.

"We just couldn't find a way of playing like we did in the first 20 minutes because we couldn't get control of the game.

"We changed formations three times to try and do something."

Ferguson admitted feeling frustrated that Rovers could not make count their numbers advantage in added time and was particularly frustrated with the panicky nature of their play as they tried to force a late winner.

He said: "The last period of the game when Burgess has been sent off and they've got a left winger in goal, my players decided to panic and I was more worried about losing the game.

"We started pumping it forward instead of passing. The only time we did Whiteman should have scored."

The Rovers boss praised debutants Andy Boyle and Tom Anderson who both started at centre half just days after arriving from Preston North End and Burnley respectively.

He said: "Do I think we deserved to win the game? No.

"We didn't deserve to win the game on the performance but we were resilient.

"The two new boys came in and did what I asked - head it away up against Hawkins who I knew would be a handful.

"They did their job because of the amount of balls into the box, we didn't stop that enough."