But this shocking defeat - their sixth in a row - was not one of them.

If anyone knows of a team conceding four goals after being in front against ten men with less than half the game to go we would like to hear from them.

Certainly nobody with long Rovers memories can remember it happening to their club.

Doncaster's second half performance was simply a shambles as Barnsley gained revenge for all the years of hurt heaped on them by heavy defeats against their rivals in the recent past.

It wasn't really a game to look for positives but anyone clutching at straws could point to the fact that Rovers were the better side in the first half and seemed in control until former Belle Vue defender Darren Moore was sent off for hauling down Lewis Guy who was clean through with only the keeper to beat four minutes after the interval.

Doncaster were already leading after Brian Stock had converted a 11th minute penalty awarded for a push on Guy.

It was just the kind of early strike Rovers had dreamed of after suffering bad breaks in their last two matches when they had gifted the opposition the lead with successive own goals.

But instead of going on to end their losing run Rovers collapsed in dramatic style when ten-man Barnsley hit back to equalise just five minutes after Moore had been sent off.

Not for the first time this season Doncaster failed to deal with a free kick lofted high into their box from around the half way line.

No fewer than four players headed the ball - including Matt Mills and Gareth Roberts - but Rovers were unable to clear their lines and the final header that mattered came from Stephen Foster with the ball bouncing between Mills' legs and past the unsighted Neil Sullivan into
the bottom corner.

It was the first goal Barnsley had scored in six games and any semblance of organisation and disciplined defence was purely coincidental after that as Doncaster were cut to ribbons by their opponents.

Rovers had no answer to the pace and trickery of skilful winger Jamal Campbell-Ryce who raced sixty yards past a series of weak and inept challenges before unleashing a low shot that Sullivan seemed to have covered all the way but somehow allowed to bobble past him and into the net after 60 minutes.

Barnsley had turned the game on its head in the space of six minutes and worse was to follow when another blistering Campbell-Ryce run led to substitute Jon Macken scoring with his first touch in the 73rd minute.

Doncaster's misery was complete when Iain Hume curled home the fourth following a breakaway move three minutes from time.

By then most of the 3,338 travelling fans had left the stadium.
They couldn't stand the shame.

Team: Sullivan, O'Connor, Lockwood, Mills, Roberts, Coppinger, Stock, Wellens, Woods (Hayter 77), Guy, Taylor (Byfield 76). Unused subs: Chambers, Wilson, Hird.

Ref: Steve Tanner (Somerset).

Att: 15,086.