'No excuses' for Ben Whiteman that Doncaster Rovers' top six challenge stutters against Rochdale

Rovers squandered an early lead to draw 1-1 with Rochdale on Saturday with another home game against bottom side Bolton Wanderers to come on Tuesday night.

And Whiteman says there could be no excuses for failing to win if Rovers are play-off contenders.

“We needed to be coming into these two home games and winning them really,” the Rovers skipper said.

“There’s no excuses if we want to get into that play-off spot.”

It is not simply that the matches in question are home games as to why Whiteman believes Rovers should be disappointed not to take maximum points.

Rovers have twice as many away matches as home games to play before the end of the season and the captain insists the mentality should be no different for any fixture.

He said: “I think they’re just games of football and you need to go in with the mindset of winning no matter if you’re home or away.

“I think we’ve been good away as well.

“Sometimes when we’ve played at home we haven’t been getting the decisions or things have not been going our way in terms of the bounce of the ball but away it seems to be going for us a bit more.”

Rovers have ten away matches and five home games remaining this season, starting with Bolton Wanderers’ visit to the Keepmoat on Tuesday.