Billy Sharp shushes taunting Huddersfield fans and continues to give it back when subbed off

Billy Sharp shushes taunting Huddersfield fans and continues to give it back when subbed off in the EFL Trophy quarter final tie on Tuesday.

Kier_Brook tweeted: “Sharp replaced for the visitors and he’s shushing the home fans that are here as he trots off the field. Sharp still giving it back to the fans as he takes a seat in the dugout. #HTAFC”

Doncaster progress through to the semi-finals after winning 2-0 on penalties, cfollowing a 1-1 draw after 90 minutes.

Doncaster had to the lead by half-time thanks to Billy Sharp’s penalty, only for the hosts to level the scoreline on the 52nd minute, a curled strike from Cameron Ashia.

In the shootout, only Ben Close and Robbie Gotts found the net for Rovers, while Huddersfield’s Alfie May, Lasse Sorensen, and Dion Charles all had their penalties kept out by keeper Thimothee Lo-Tutala, and Antony Evans struck the bar.

@bysamrobinson @BillySharp10 count your days. || #doncaster #htafc #efl #football #billysharp ♬ original sound – Sam Robinson

Interviewer: Cliff, your thoughts on that one this evening?

Assistant manager Cliff Byrne: Yeah, really pleased as you can imagine. The aim before the game, the remit from the manager was getting to the next round. We’d done that and I felt it was a real controlled performance in terms of our possession and our movement off the ball was really good.

Interviewer: Perfect place to start, Thimothée Lo-Tutala, hero in the shootout as well, but such a good performance during the 90 minutes as well.

Cliff: Yeah, he’s had a really good performance throughout the game. Some really good saves in terms of his reaction time and getting across the goal, but then into the penalties between himself and Kyle, they’ve done the homework. Kyle’s done his homework in terms of with the analysts, working out where players potentially will go and then it’s ultimately down to Timmy to get there at the right time. He’s done that tonight and they’ve not managed to score any of them.

Interviewer: The lads keeping the nerve as well when taking the spot kicks?

Cliff: Yeah, really cool, calm and collected. It’s no easy moment stepping up to take penalties when you’re not routinely taking them on a regular basis and I felt the boys dispatched them well.

Interviewer: Overall, defended really well tonight as well as the team?

Cliff: Yeah, I think the team as a whole can be really pleased with the performance. I’ve got to say there’s been a lack of minutes for them in recent weeks, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell that tonight with their fitness levels and their application, their attitude to put the game plan into action, but with and without the ball. I’m really pleased for them and getting rewards for the hard work that they’ve been putting in on the training ground.

Interviewer: And it’s really continued that trend we’ve seen all season of players coming in, called upon them. I’ve not had as many minutes as they’d like, but coming in in knockout competitions and really putting a shift in?

Cliff: Yeah, really putting a shift in. We’ve got a really, really competitive squad and without stating the obvious facts, the manager can only pick 11 every week and I’m sure he’d love to pick them all if he could get them all on the pitch, but it just goes to show the level of professionalism behind the scenes with the players, especially first and foremost, to keep themselves in top condition and ready to go when asked. As you can see this evening, they come together as a unit and as a collective we’ve got ourselves into the next round.

Interviewer: We talked before the game about putting the weekend to bed and marching on and that’s kind of done that tonight.

Cliff: Yeah, no it is. And like I alluded to in the pre-match interview, there was nothing to be down in the dumps about from the weekend. It was simple for us to identify, it was even simpler for the players to identify. You’re learning all the time and we’ve had to take the punishment of the defeat on Saturday to learn and this evening we’ll learn some stuff from this game as well.

Interviewer: Into the semi-finals, I know we’ve talked before but you’ll only be focused on that one, but it’s a nice feeling being into that last four-hour competition.

Cliff: Yeah, absolutely and huge credit goes to the players because like you say, when you haven’t been constantly involved game after game and if the cup competitions come around and you find yourself playing, you have to perform. That’s always a challenge for any footballer when selected to go and perform and we’ve consistently done that in this competition, hence why we’re now into the semi-final.

Interviewer: In terms of coming in and performing, Thimothée Lo-Tutala, we mentioned him already, but he’s done well over these last few weeks, called upon late at Burton and come in. It’s not been the easiest time for him probably over the last month or so, but he’s really, really stepped up when he’s been needed.

Cliff: Yeah, he has listened. There was obviously an unfortunate incident that happened with Zander in the pre-match warm-up and again, it just kicks back to the level of professionalism from the players. Yes, there’s always elements of disappointment when players aren’t managing to get as many minutes as we want. We get that, we’re all human beings. We feel for the players as well, but the important thing for Timmy, he’s kept himself right and you’ve seen that in the level of performances in recent games. I’m not only pleased for him, I’m pleased for the rest of the group and might I add, the bench has come on and energised the team again to take it on another level, so it’s been really good.

Interviewer: You’ve got a week now until the next game against Huddersfield this time. What does the next week look like for you?

Cliff: The exact same as what a Saturday game would look like. It just happens to be Tuesday, Tuesday, so we’ll still have the same sort of application and training in terms of how we debrief this game and prepare for the next game coming the following week, which is, listen, it can be unusual when you play the same team back-to-back, so there’ll be a lot of familiarity there in the work that we’ve done, but it’ll be a different type of game again, I’m sure.

Huddersfield boss Liam Manning said, per Yorkshire Post: “There was lots of positives to take. It’s just probably the manner of the penalties that feel a little bit frustrating. The lads are disappointed naturally.