Doncaster Rovers v Leicester City: O’Driscoll is flinching despite odds in favour

Rovers, who were seventh just five months ago, have only two wins from the last 22 league games and still need a point to be safe with two games to go.

O’Driscoll always knew that the final two games against Leicester City, today, and Middlesbrough next weekend were going to be tough for his players but now admits the pressure is even greater.

“When the fixture list comes out at the start of the season, everyone looks at the opening games but I usually look at the last three or four,” he said.

“When I saw Leicester and Middlesbrough as the last two, I grimaced because Leicester is a big club with big ambitions and Boro is a team coming down from the Premier League. I always thought the last two would be tough and they are going to be even tougher now.

“There is no point putting our heads in the sand and thinking everything is going to be okay when we still have to win in 10 games. No-one is going to snap their fingers and make it okay,” he added.

“We need to be solid against a team like Leicester who are capable of scoring three or four goals. If that happens, we could go into the Middlesbrough game looking over our shoulders. We don’t want that but the way this season is going we probably will be.”

Although the odds are still stacked heavily in Doncaster’s favour, the possibility of relegation has loomed on the horizon as results have failed to improve.

However, Rovers need only a point to be safe and will only be relegated if Sheffield United or Scunthorpe United win both of their remaining fixtures by enough goals to chip away at a vastly superior goal difference.

“We would like to get three points or the point we need this weekend,” said O’Driscoll. “We would also like Barnsley to draw or do better at Sheffield United but we can only affect what we can affect. The problem is we have set up a way of playing that stresses the importance of performance rather than results.

“Now we have ended up in a situation where the result is more important than the performance. We have tightened up and inched towards the finish line by being harder to beat rather than scoring more goals than the opposition.”