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Dire - mind numbing - choose your own words to describe it but it really was a shocker. There was no tempo to the game whatsoever with both sides playing a really slow style and it was a game where you would struggle to find too many players who came out of it with any credit. Maybe James Coppinger and John Oster for Doncaster with Danny Fox and Dean Marney for Burnley and that's about it.
And all played in one of those little new stadiums that I'm thankful my team doesn't play their home games in, another one still not complete as visiting fans travelling by coach are forced to take a walk through mud to get to the ground, and in a totally unlit area.
Burnley made just the one change from the eleven that had started the FA Cup win against Burton Albion with new signing Charlie Austin coming in for a debut at the expense of Steven Thompson who dropped to the bench.
Doncaster had lost both their central defenders and were also without goalkeeper Neil Sullivan who was injured, with Sean O'Driscoll giving 20-year-old Gary Woods a first ever start.
It was a strange opening to the game with Doncaster going for a somewhat direct style of play, hitting a number of long balls. It's not something that we expect to see from them but that's probably what a lack of confidence, brought about by their poor run of form, does to a side.
It had Billy Sharp, he who prefers to play for a bigger club, whinging and moaning at everyone around him just about every time the ball got within 20 yards of him. After about ten minutes you'd have probably said we'd made a reasonable enough start.
That soon changed though and we were soon very much second best against a Doncaster side that was playing anything but well. Coppinger put one effort into the side netting that the home fans on the side thought had gone in.
Then the Burnley fans celebrated as Sharp made a real hash of a header. We were now making them look good but as half time approached we were heading for a 0-0 scoreline. However, that should have changed in the very last minute of the half.
Credit here to referee Oliver Langford who otherwise had an absolute nightmare of a game. He saw a foul on a Doncaster player but played the advantage as they got the ball out to the right. Grant does really well to save from Coppinger but right in front of us we just wait for James Hayter to put the ball into the empty net.
Somehow Danny Fox, Burnley's best player on the night, managed to get in and block it before we frantically cleared it.
At half time the Burnley fans looked shell shocked at how poor we'd been. Had Doncaster shown any sharpness in front of goal they would have been in front. Thankfully they didn't and we were still in with a good chance of getting something.
We started the second half a lot better and took the game to the home side and just five minutes in we got the ball into the net. The ball dropped for Jay Rodriguez but his shot lacked power and direction. It found Dean Marney who slotted home as the assistant's flag went up for offside.
Things changed though and Doncaster again should have done better. Grant came out of goal but Sharp beat him to the ball. All credit to the keeper though, he rectified his mistake to block Sharp's shot and we were able to clear.
Then disaster struck. Coppinger played the ball into the box with only one Doncaster player in there and marked by Clarke Carlisle. Inexplicably, Duff got there and steered a header into the corner to give Doncaster the lead.
"Sign him on, sign him on," sang the small number of home fans delighted with the gift. A few minutes later Howe decided to change things and got Chris Iwelumo ready. Before he could come on we should, without any doubt whatsoever, have had a penalty.
Chris Eagles I think it was who got the ball in for Marney and as the midfielder was about to score he was so blatantly pulled back. That Mr Langford is a penalty. That Mr Langford is an automatic red card. The incompetent official, who had spent most of the night insisting that free kicks needed to be moved a couple of feet before they could be taken, just ignored it.
His next piece of brilliance was awarding Doncaster a free kick and allowing the taker to play it to himself and move forwards. By now, nothing was surprising me with this official.
Iwelumo did come on, as did both Martin Paterson and Ross Wallace. Doncaster did what we did at Portsmouth and dropped deeper and deeper. We did what Portsmouth did and just frantically hit balls in without showing any sign of quality.
Iwelumo had a chance but could only get a glancing header to a cross. Wallace and Fox got some decent delivery into the box but in all honesty we never once looked likely to get an equaliser.
Just to add salt into the wound, Paterson pulled up again clearly holding his thigh; it looked like a recurrence of the injury sustained in the home game against Doncaster twelve weeks ago.
Four minutes of time were added but they were played out with little happening and we could have no complaints whatsoever at the result, as poor as Doncaster were.
There's a lot to work on for the new manager. If he didn't think so before this game he'll certainly know now. It quite simply just wasn't good enough.
The teams were;
Doncaster: Gary Woods, James O'Connor, Sam Hird, George Friend, James Chambers, Paul Keegan, Brian Stock (Dennis Souza 84), John Oster (Dean Shiels 89), James Coppinger, Billy Sharp, James Hayter (Steve Brooker 45). Subs not used: Jordan Bradshaw, Byron Webster, Ryan Mason, Waide Fairhurst.
Yellow Card: Dean Shiels.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Dean Marney, Chris Eagles, Wade Elliott (Chris Iwelumo 65), Charlie Austin (Martin Paterson 71), Jay Rodriguez (Ross Wallace 75). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Andre Bikey, Graham Alexander, Steven Thompson.
Yellow Card: Danny Fox.
Referee: Oliver Langford (West Midlands)
Attendance: 8,893.