Doncaster Rovers get back to business

And boss Darren Ferguson hopes the club’s sterling FA Cup effort against Premier League Stoke City can be a watershed moment in the season.

The pulsating third round tie was watched by a crowd of 13,299 - the highest at the Keepmoat Stadium since April 2011.

The 9,000 Rovers fans in attendance - a significant rise on recent numbers - can’t have failed to have been impressed by their team’s display against the Potters.

And Ferguson hopes there will be a knock-on effect as his team now aim to close the gap on the top six.

“The game this Saturday was always going to be a lot bigger [than Stoke], because the league’s the priority,” said Ferguson.

“But the players showed they had the belief they could win last weekend. I was pleased with the performance.

“The atmosphere was brilliant,” he added.

“That’s what we want and that’s what we do it for.

“We’d like to get as many fans as we can in here every week. I don’t think many of them would have gone home too disappointed. Obviously the result was disappointing, but not the performance.

“There would have been a lot of fans in that have not been here for a while so hopefully they’ll come back.”

Academy twins Jack and Paul McKay joined Leeds United on two-and-a-half year deals for an undisclosed fee this week.

Ferguson told Rovers’ official website: “The clean break will do both the brothers the world of good.

“It was proving hard for them to fit into my first team plans with the current form of the lads.”

James Coppinger is expected to be fit this weekend after missing the Stoke game with an ankle injury.