How Gary McSheffrey reacted to Doncaster Rovers' win against Accrington Stanley

But he praised his players’ work rate and commitment in Rovers’ 2-0 win and insisted they have earned a slice of good fortune.

Accrington had more possession and more than twice as many attempts on goal during a scrappy contest.

But Rovers ended their home hoodoo - a run of seven straight defeats at the Eco-Power Stadium - thanks to Josh Martin’s deflected effort midway through the second half and Joseph Olowu’s late tap-in.

The victory cut the gap to safety to four points ahead of Saturday’s trip to AFC Wimbledon who lie one place above the drop zone.

“I said to the lads before the game can we get a performance but more importantly tonight is just about getting a result,” said McSheffrey.

“However it comes it was about getting the result.

“To be fair to the lads they’ve put their bodies on the line, got a lot of blocks on things and won a lot of second balls in the box.

“To be honest I can’t believe they [Accrington] have not put one in the net with the amount of crosses they’ve put in.

“We’ve ridden our luck a little bit but I think we’ve probably earned that from the first 70 minutes on Saturday before we ran out of steam a bit and get punished by good players.

“The big man has been on our side tonight and we’ll take the win however it comes.”

He added: “We obviously want the performance level to be there but that’s the benchmark for work rate.

“Mipo [Odubeko] came on and it’s the biggest shift he’s done in half an hour tonight. His pressing from the front was superb, stopping forward balls, decent link play and running in behind. That’s a benchmark for him in terms of his work rate.

“It was good to see a few people last the 90 minutes but look like they were comfortable late on whereas in other games we’ve looked vulnerable late on.

“We’d like the performance level to be good but we’ve got some big six-pointers coming up so it’s about results in these games.”