Bucky's Blog: It's make or break time for Doncaster Rovers

There’s plenty of contributing factors such as injuries, and the horrible weather, but that one is the same for both teams, it’s your job to handle it better.

Port Vale did that. They continually looked dangerous on the break.

Rovers didn’t get close enough to them and were just too slow to react to any danger.

We haven’t had the same cohesion in the side since the Stoke defeat. And we know it is in them. We’ve seen it.

Nobody is a bigger fan of James Coppinger than me, but even he couldn’t make a pass stick against Vale. He’s one of the players that’s set his own standards so high, but he didn’t meet them.

It is definitely not down to a lack of effort. The whole team just kept giving posession away.

It’s a bad time for injuries when you’ve got players like Nathan Tyson, Harry Middleton and Andy Butler out missing. And the way Thorsten Stuckmann went down and ended up substituted on Tuesday night is a massive concern.

I’m not sure whether Marko Marosi is ready to be thrown into the side yet, and an injury crisis is the last thing we need heading into such an important spell.

After the Walsall game there’s games against Scunthorpe, Sheffield United and Barnsley. Rovers need the spark back, as it’s make or break time.

On a positive note, the fans are still superb, the belief they have in the team now is clear to see.

And I know the manager will pick the players up ahead of a tough run that we’ve got coming up. The players are still under his spell.

I think Sean O’Driscoll will get a good reception on Tuesday and it could make for a very good game.

I hope to see a Rovers reaction, because we do like to play against the better sides, we’ve seen that on occasions this season.

Bucky’s charity bet: Rovers 2 Walsall 1