Gary McSheffrey wants Doncaster Rovers to take confidence from Lincoln City win into Crawley Town clash

Second-half goals from Kyle Hurst and Adam Long cancelled out Charles Verman's close-range header just after half time and sent Rovers top of Group E at the LNER Stadium on Tuesday evening.

The win also snapped a three-game losing streak, which has seen Doncaster fall to twelfth in League Two.

"It can bring some confidence to the boys,” said McSheffrey, whose side host struggling Crawley Town at the Eco-Power Stadium on Saturday.

“I said ‘you have got to take confidence from that’. We have come to Lincoln, a League One team doing really well, off the back of two wins, and it was the same squad of players bar Ben House."

McSheffrey made nine changes to the team that started in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Swindon Town but brought several first-team regulars off the bench, including Hurst, Kyle Knoyle and George Miller.

He added: “It has to give them a bit of confidence and belief. It has been a tough couple of weeks for them – for everyone.

"This is by no means us cracking it, it’s just a good response. I always say there’s that next game to turn a negative into a positive and that’s what we’ve done tonight.”

McSheffrey was pleased with the character his players have shown since the Swindon loss but admitted: "It could have gone either way (after conceding).

"It’s nice to stop the rot of three defeats.

"We're straight onto Saturday and we are focused on Crawley.”

Crawley have won just once in nine games this term and lost 3-2 to AFC Wimbledon tonight.

Tuesday also saw the return of Aidan Barlow, Ben Close and Joseph Olowu after their respective injury lay-offs.

Close was withdrawn at half time in a pre-planned change with Barlow and Olowu lasting for an hour.

McSheffrey said: "Them boys did well and the lads that came on made a good impact. Overall it was a really good collective performance.

"We have got two or three good players coming back into the mix, which gives you a good headache.

"There are shirts up for grabs because it’s no secret the performance level hasn’t been acceptable in the last couple of games.”