‘Could be better’: Doncaster Rovers boss Gary McSheffrey gives assessment of start to the season

Rovers moved up to ninth in League Two after Saturday’s 4-1 win over Crawley Town, which snapped a three-game losing streak in the fourth tier and put them within a point of the play-offs.

If Doncaster sustained their current average of 1.7 points per game, they would accumulate 78 points over the season.

That total has been enough to qualify for the play-offs – usually with home advantage in the second leg – in each of the last ten seasons in League Two.

The same total was also enough to see Port Vale promoted automatically in the 2012/13 campaign.

Asked for his assessment of Rovers’ start, boss McSheffrey said: "Could be better but it's a good start points-wise, a little blip and a good response.

"There's room for improvement but there's probably 15, 16 teams in the division who wish they were where we are so we're okay.”

Saturday’s win was Doncaster’s biggest margin of victory under McSheffrey and biggest since November 2020 when they thumped FC United of Manchester 5-1 in the FA Cup first round.

They now head into a double away header against the division’s bottom two clubs, Rochdale and Hartlepool, with renewed confidence.

McSheffrey believes there is ‘loads’ more to come from his team and said: “We've not scratched the surface.

"It still looked like there was a bit of nerves at certain times (against Crawley) but you've just got to get over that and really enjoy playing here under the pressure and the expectancy levels.”