Doncaster Rovers - Owen Bailey on how play-off push has seen pride and belief replace embarrassment

When they lost 5-1 to Stockport County in January, Rovers' plan to get out of League Two looked like it could come to fruition, but in the opposite way they planned for in the summer.

They sat a place above the relegation zone and although there was a seven-point cushion to Sutton United, losing there in the next game would cut it to an uncomfortable four.

So manager Grant McCann ordered a reset, telling his team the season started here and ramming the point home with a table published in the Cantley Park canteen starting that day.

Joe Ironside's penalty in the sixth added minute saved them from defeat at Gander Green Lane and was the first of 27 points won in the 12 games since, one short of doubling their pre-February tally. No League Two club has won more in that time, even though the three closest – Crawley Town, Milton Keynes Dons and Morecambe – have played two or three extra matches.

Beating Wrexham 1-0 on Tuesday cut the gap to the play-offs to seven points with six games to play and six teams to clamber over. Unlikely, but not impossible.

Paul Heckingbottom, Neil Warnock, Matt Taylor, Xisco Munoz, Darren Moore and Mark Hughes were sacked by Yorkshire clubs before that Sutton draw, yet Doncaster fans – remembering what McCann did in his first spell and seeing what he was trying to do now – continued to sing their manager's name, making it easier for the board to stand by him.

"It was so frustrating at the start of the season," says Bailey, whose goal was the difference on Tuesday in a game Doncaster should have won by more but would have drawn without Thimothee Lo-Tutala's outstanding stoppage-time save. "I lost count of the amount of times I had to tell my mates we were a good team but we weren't quite getting the results."

They were tough times for McCann.

"It was a little bit annoying that we didn't get to show people what we're about," he recalls, choosing his words carefully.

"We knew what we had in the changing room, we knew we'd recruited well and kept the players we wanted to keep, we knew we had a good group of players who could perform and be consistent in this division.

"Unfortunately we just had a really rotten time with serious injuries. It was something I'd never seen before, even in my playing days.

"We were having to schedule different times for players to come in because we just didn't have enough people to treat them.

"It was dark times for us then and as I sit here today we still have 10 players in the treatment room - our No 1 goalkeeper (Ian Lawlor), Bobby Faulkner, Ben Close, Jon Taylor, George Miller to name a few.

"Management is tough. If you lose a few games you can feel people have an agenda against you but all you want to do is work your hardest for the football club.

"We felt a little bit frustrated at the start – not just me, the fans and the players – that we couldn't get the results together or even get a team that would consistently start."

The key, says midfielder Bailey, was keeping the faith.

"The gaffer always backed us and as a group we backed ourselves because we always knew the quality we had," he insists

"It wasn't quite gelling. Whether it was getting used to each other and getting a settled team, I'm not too sure. We were down to the bare bones at certain stages."

The 18-game league table seems like a mater-stroke, the timing impeccable.

"All those little things have definitely helped, that and the little stats he's shown us have been big for us and given us that little extra motivation but as players we shouldn't need it," says Bailey. "It's enough motivation to get three points on a Saturday."

There is a momentum at Doncaster which is not just about five straight wins but also four new contracts last week. Tuesday's was their biggest league crowd of the season.

"The amount of times I've had conversations this season in press conferences and answered questions about being in the top seven but it doesn't really matter where you are until the 46th game," argues McCann, "You can get blinded by 'We're 20th in the league' and you need to focus game by game.

"Momentum's massive and anyone that's got momentum going into the play-offs has got a real chance. As a player we sneaked in on the last day at Scunthorpe and came late at Peterborough, it was the same with Cheltenham.

"It's usually that team that goes and wins it.

"But we'll see. Crawley are on a tremendous run as well, we've just got to take it to Morecambe for a tough game."

The point is, football is fun at Doncaster again, perhaps for the first time in a few years.

"I played all the tough games and the 5-0 defeats where it was really draining because you're not getting the rewards for anything and you come out embarrassed," says Bailey.

"It's a totally different feeling now and it makes it all the sweeter."